


Carry On Wayward...

by SoulSurvivor_36



Series: The Lives We Make for Ourselves [12]
Category: Supernatural, Wayward Sisters (TV)
Genre: Erotic Dreams, Explicit Language, F/M, Original Hunt, POV Original Female Character, Sioux Falls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-02-20 11:02:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 34
Words: 58,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13145301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulSurvivor_36/pseuds/SoulSurvivor_36
Summary: Delilah is attempting to re-enter normal life and society, finding refuge with Sheriff Mills and her orphaned ward Alex Jones.  But normal life is not so easy to balance, especially when Delilah’s brain is so quick to jump to supernatural conclusions and torments her with memories of the man who basically ruined her life in the first place.Sioux Falls is a perfect place for Delilah to find herself again, or is it?  What is lurking in the dark in the heavy forests surrounding the beautiful South Dakota town?  Are those missing hikers really mere statistics? Or were they victim of something much harder to explain?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!  
> This is getting ridiculous. I started planning this story and in fact had it all laid out in my notebook in AUGUST and then life happened... actually it all came tumbling down around me. Since I started writing this fic, I quit being a teacher ( Did y'all know I was a teacher? 9 years... anyways) so I left my chosen carreer and ventured out into unknown territory, fighting anxiety with every step I took. Finally got a job... changed it not long after... and now I'm going on my third month in a new field...
> 
> Anyways, that's me... y'all are here for Lilah, so here's what's up with her:  
> I decided back in August that I wanted to do something a little different with this next story. I had always planned on having Lilah end up on Jody's doorstep, but with the announcement back in May of the impending spin off Wayward Sisters, (and with the now awesome success of the backdoor pilot... go girl monster fighting power!!!!) I figured maybe there'd be a niche for an all Delilah and Jody fic. I also thought it'd be fun to try my hand at a more complex narrative style and throw in some POV shifts... so forgive me for hijacking Alex, but I always loved her character and now I get to be her.
> 
> I apologize that as of now the story is still incomplete, breaking in a new life has been more exhausting and time consuming than I thought it would be, but I want y'all to be with Delilah again and see what she's up to, so I'm posting what I have so far, and i'll add the rest when I'm done.
> 
> If you want to receive an email when chapters get added, you can subscribe to the story, or even the series and get notified so you don't miss a thing!
> 
> I love you, one and all, and i hope you forgive my longer-than-intended hiatus.
> 
> Without further ado... Carry on Wayward...
> 
> ******UPDATE******  
> It's done! finished!
> 
> I'm sorry for it taking this long, but I do hope the result will be satisfying!
> 
> BTW, if anybody is heading out to MontCon this coming weekend (April 6,7,8) I'm gonna be there! Feel free to come up and say hi if you recognize my "SoulSurvivor_36" name tag! I'd love to meet the faceless few who read my stuff ;-)
> 
> Enjoy the new chapters!

“Knock it off Matt!” Kayla repeated for the third time, swiping at the blond man’s hand brushing her arm.

He raised his hands to his ears looking sheepish, “There was a spider, Kay! I swear!”

“Yeah well, you could pay for a trip to Peru with all the ‘swearing’ you do, jackass.”

From behind, Tim and Chelsea started laughing. He had his arm slung around Chelsea’s shoulders as he adjusted his long strides over the rocky, leaf-strewn ground of the trail to match her shorter, brisk steps.

The warm May breeze was making its way through the towering tree trunks and rustling the thick underbrush on either side of the trail plunged in perpetual twilight by the foliage above. It was a perfect late-afternoon hike along the familiar path of the state park.

Matt reached for Kayla’s hand and slipped his fingers between hers, and though she glanced away looking annoyed, she didn’t pull away, making Tim and Chelsea raise their eyebrows and glance at each other with knowing smirks.

Up ahead was the curve in the path and the kissing stone that indicated the hidden turn off that led to a secluded clearing a little ways off into the woods. Many young couples would often sneak off to that enchanted spot bordered on one side by a quietly burbling brook and dense undergrowth all around giving those who visited the place privacy enough for some intimate moments.

Usually by July, the path was stamped down by the traffic, but this early in the season, ferns and trilliums were growing green and fresh and brushed at Matt and Kayla’s knees, wetting his cargo pants and her jeans as he drew her away from Tim and Chelsea and down the path behind the large boulder. Chelsea caught Kayla’s slightly bemused smile as she silently told her friend that it was okay to go on without them. Chelsea brought her hand to her ear holding out her thumb and pinky reminding her friend to call her later. Tim let out a loud, cheery whoop as she pulled him away to continue their hike down the quiet trail.

Matt moved confidently through the underbrush, Kayla following behind him, unable to completely lose the smile pulling at her lips. Finally, the ferns and greenery thinned, and the ground became rockier as they neared the creek – large flat stones protruding from the ground at an angle and covered in soft moss stopped the encroaching forest from settling in that spot. Kayla looked around curiously; it really was like being in a room all on their own, the tree trunks on the other side of the creek growing more densely, the ferns filling in the remaining gaps. They were surrounded by living walls of green dimming both the sunlight from above and the sounds of the woods around them. Kayla frowned as she listened more intently, wondering where the constant jabbering of the birds had gone.

Matt lay his hand on her waist and pulled her towards him. His lips came down on hers and though she flinched a little at the lack of coaxing preliminaries, she warmed up again quickly, finding her earlier spring giddiness at the prospect of alone time with the handsome Matt.

A twig snapped in the trees behind her and she turned her head sharply to look, breaking away from his wet kisses.

“Kayla, don’t make me beg, baby,” Matt half groaned, trying to pull her against him again.

She pushed him away, alert, looking around anxiously trying to see through the thick foliage that was hiding them from curious gazes, but also was hiding whatever was lurking. “Matt,” she said, turning back towards him and meeting his dark blue eyes, “I don’t think we should stay here.”

He rolled his eyes and stepped away from her. “Are you serious? You’re backing out now?” he asked, his voice bordering on whining.

“No, that’s not it. I--” she hesitated, feeling a chill on her skin as the hairs rose up along her arms and scalp, “I don’t think we’re alone.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he answered, moving in closer again. “There’s no one around.”

His lips pressed against hers again and she returned his kisses hesitantly but warming to his touch again. His hands slipped under the edge of her shirt and started making their way up her back when she heard another snapping branch, this time much closer. Matt heard it too and when she broke the kiss again, he was looking around for the source of the noise as well.

“It’s probably just a rabbit, or maybe a fox,” he said as he bent down to pick up a stone the size of his fist from the ground.

“Matt, can we just go, please?” begged Kayla again, wrapping her arms around her waist and holding her elbows the unnatural quiet pressing against her.

“Yeah, in a minute, baby.”

Matt slowly approached the edge of the clearing, focusing his stare on the greenery as though trying to intimidate it into revealing which creature had caused the interruption. He heard Kayla shuffling behind him and he turned around reluctantly to try to put her mind at ease. He startled seeing the empty clearing.

“Kayla?” he called out, unsure. There was no response. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” he mumbled then called out more loudly, “Kayla!”

He headed towards the path that would lead him back to the trail, assuming Kayla had taken off without him. “Typical,” he whispered under his breath. He let go of the rock he was still holding and wiped his hands, disappointed. Something rustled behind him again and he turned around peering into the thick underbrush.

“Kayla?” he called out uncertainly. He approached the edge of the clearing again, suddenly very aware of how completely still the woods had become. It was as if a large bell jar had been dropped on the whole area. Even the wind had died down.

A strange smell tickled his nose – too sweet and pungent, like the smell of roadkill rotting in the heat of summer. He brought his hand to his nose as though it would help to dispel it. Then, he heard another branch crack, but not behind him.

He turned and looked up just as a large shadow fell upon him with a screech. All he saw were long claws and sharp teeth bearing down on him and wrapping him in that horrible smell before everything went dark.

The woods echoed with his cry of fear, startling a nearby hawk that had been perched in a tree, but otherwise going unheard in the stillness of the afternoon woods.


	2. Chapter 2

She felt his warm breath on the back of her shoulder an instant before his lips pressed against her skin. His hand slowly smoothed up her arm and rubbed lazy circles on her shoulder as he kissed his way up towards her neck. Delilah groaned, feeling herself being pulled from her sleepy state. If she kept her eyes shut, maybe she could dream a little longer, she told herself. She rolled over and his mouth covered hers hungrily. She reached up her hand to cradle the side of his face, his morning stubble tickling her palm as she parted her lips and pressed them against his slowly, savouring the moment. He tasted like whiskey and smelled like nights spent around an open fire, a trace of leather lingering under it all. “Dean,” Delilah sighed contentedly into his open mouth.

His body pressed into hers and she sighed again at the familiar weight of him, his body covering hers, his knee wedged between her legs. She raised her knee and felt him settle against her pelvis as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to hold him closer. Her hand combed through the short, soft hair on the back of his head and she couldn’t help but feel safe, and warm all tangled up in him. She held him tightly while they made out lazily, no cares in the world; the day could wait for them to be ready for it.

“I miss you, baby,” he whispered in her ear, his deep voice soft like an evening breeze.

“But I’m right here,” she answered, her feeling of happy contentment wavering.

“Come home,” his voice echoed distantly.

“I can’t,” she answered, feeling the dream slipping away.

A cold wind swept over her, replacing Dean’s warmth and erasing the feel of him from her body. Finally, she opened her eyes. She frowned in confusion as she looked around herself. She was sitting in an empty room painted carmine: the floor, the walls, the ceiling all that peculiarly familiar vivid red. Carefully, she stood up, looking all around warily. A feeling of unease swept through her and her instincts had her on her toes, alert.

Something tapped the top of her head and she looked up, a drop of something hitting her square on the forehead. She wiped at it with her fingers and they came away smudged in the colour of the room. A sharp, metallic smell, reminiscent of copper, wafted towards her and movement like crawling ants or slithering snakes drew her eyes to the walls. An icy chill crawled up her spine as she watched rivulets of blood run up towards the ceiling leaving behind the bare white walls and floor and gathering above her head in a swelling bubble.

She threw herself out of the way seconds before it all came down hitting the floor right where she had been standing like someone had turned on a faucet. She turned over onto her back, crab crawling away from where she thought the blood would be pooling, only to find that it had all disappeared. The room was stark white and empty save for Dean, who was standing there tensely, fists clenched, his head tilted down, his eyes closed. His whole posture screamed danger.

Every hair on her body stood on end, her eyes glued to the hunter standing before her. As calm as she had been in his arms a moment before, now she felt nauseous, waves of malice rolling off of him.

“Dean?” she asked, hesitantly.

Red, glowing lines appeared on his arms, like the blood in his veins had turned radioactive. The Mark of Cain glowed brightest as the lines reached it and then continued under the edge of his sleeves. They crawled up his neck and spread out like delicate fingers on his cheeks towards his closed eyelids. Delilah swallowed hard, unable to keep the intense fear at bay, she knew that she didn’t want to see what was under those lids. Then his eyes opened, and her skin crawled seeing the glowing red embers that had nothing to do with the usually clear green irises.

“Aren’t you going to fix me?” asked Dean, his usual rough timber sending the chills of horror dancing through her.

He slowly took a step towards her and she scrambled back, away from him in a panic. “Don’t touch me!” she screamed.

“You said you’d stay with me, Lilah. Where are you now? You said you loved me, but you left. You left me.”

Delilah’s retreat was blocked by the door less wall behind her, and she pressed herself back against it. Trapped again, she couldn’t help but think. “Please, no!” she cried desperately, throwing up her arms like it would hide her from him, save her from those burning eyes.

She felt his fingers close around her throat, digging into her skin and bruising it as he lifted her up until her feet no longer touched the ground. The press of his hand was suffocating her, and she struggled for breath as she clawed at his fingers and kicked at his legs. But none of it had any effect on the monster before her. The monster that stalked her every thought.

“You’re nothing but an easy lay, Delilah, a common whore.”

“I tried, Dean. But I can’t save you.”

“You gave up.”

His words cut her deeply and a sob tore its way through her crushed throat. She had tried so hard! How could she make him see how hard she had tried? She had been killing herself trying and she just couldn’t do it anymore. She couldn’t take the pain. She turned to look at him through her tear-filled eyes and the horror and fear filled her up so completely she screamed; the burning embers in his eyes had smouldered down to coals – black and empty.

 

Delilah’s eyes snapped open and she fought with the tangled blankets before she realized that no monster had her, just her memories. She threw off the stifling, covers and lay back against the sweat soaked pillow staring at the ceiling while her breathing slowed back to normal. She stared into the dark room, no morning rays to brighten it, and the remnants of her dream made her uncomfortable. Not that she would admit to herself that darkness itself left her uneasy these days. She reached for the lamp beside the bed, only to remember that it wasn’t there anymore. Well the lamp was probably there, sitting on the small dresser as it always did, by the bed Dean had bought her, in the room she had considered hers. It was her who wasn’t there anymore. “You left me,” dream Dean’s voice echoed in her head.

It had been a month since she had left the Winchesters behind, the circumstances wrapped in deep anguish and mostly faded to an itch at the back of her mind by numbing mechanisms… but the nightmares remained. Delilah sat up and threw her legs over the edge of the sofa cushions, dropping her head into her hands, her elbows on her knees as she tried to find this morning – like every morning, in fact – the will to get her ass off Jody’s deceased husband’s office couch and moving into another day.

She reached over to the small lamp resting on the corner of the desk beside her and tapped the sensor to turn it on. The bright bulb made her narrow her eyes for a moment, but she quickly adjusted, ignoring the slight loosening around her chest. She took deep breaths and sat back against the plush leather. Like she did every morning, her eyes looked around the room, searching out the various artefacts of Sean Mills’ former life, relics of happy normality that she had been using to anchor herself: the family photos and diplomas and certificates hanging on the walls, the tidy desk with its old fashion blotter sitting in the middle, an old calendar page still under it with the appointments for four years ago; some that he had gone to, and some that he had never made. The bookcases were filled with various work-related references as well as a selection of novels and local history books that he clearly had for pleasure. Delilah had even picked up one or two of these in the past weeks, reading up on some of the local Native American tribes and the history of the development of what was now Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

When Delilah had appeared in the sheriff’s building that day, strung out from two days of hitchhiking, she had been worried that Jody’s remembered invitation would turn out to have been something she had made up, or that Jody had changed her mind, that she would turn her away… and then where would she go? Her worries had been unfounded, though, and the sheriff had not even hesitated. She had put everything down, set up one of her deputies to take charge and had brought Delilah home. Her home. Delilah’s home remained several miles south, at the exact centre of the States, in an underground bunker, with two men who had turned her world upside down and then right side up again, and like a ride at a fairground… around and around again. She couldn’t stay there anymore, she couldn’t just stay on the roller coaster: it would be the death of her, she knew. You gave up.

Delilah shook away the last of the nightmare and stood up reluctantly. She opened the office door and moved into the hallway, rubbing some of the sleep from her eyes. Everything was still dark and nothing was moving behind the other closed doors in Jody’s house. Must still be pretty early, thought Delilah without caring. She knew she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep either way.

She walked into the bathroom, closed the door and flipped the light on, wincing at the pain in her head caused by the bright glare. She groaned, rubbing her forehead and looked down at the white porcelain toilet with a sigh. Even bodily functions were complicated in this fog that wrapped her head. Soon, she would have to slap on her human face and interact with the world, but for now, she kept it off, free to be what she was and feel how she felt without anybody judging her, and what she was, was numb. She sat down and relieved herself, staring absently at the fake marble veins in the white acrylic tiles of the bathroom floor, her mind just blank.

She stood back up and flushed, movement catching her attention out of the corner of her eye and she turned to look. For a moment, she wondered who the stranger in the window was, until she realized she was looking at her own reflection in the mirror over the sink. She observed the dark circles under her eyes and the doleful expression pulling down the corners of her mouth with detachment. Her cheeks were looking a little hollow, making her look a bit more corpse-like than she was used to. There was a strained look around her eyes making them look large and slightly startled; the lack of good, regular sleep was taking its toll on her. She turned away from the husk in the mirror, she would deal with her later, and pulled aside the shower curtain, reaching in to turn on the water so it could warm up. She stepped back and pulled off her clothes mechanically, barely registering that she seemed to have fallen asleep in her jeans and bra again.

Shivering, Delilah stepped over the tub edge and into the hot jet of water, scalding her skin in the process. She didn’t adjust the water temperature, though, instead putting up with the abuse on her skin as it turned pink, then red and began to prickle uncomfortably. She forced her head under the cascading water, closing her eyes, and gasped again, finding herself responding to the pain, green eyes flashing in her mind. The hot water was setting her whole body on fire as it seeped into her hair and under her skin and flayed her numb nerves to life.

Lips pressed themselves to hers as she ran her fingers down the scalded skin on her arm sending shivers skittering through her. She nearly moaned as she cupped her breast, her hand really his hand pinching her nipple and she leaned into his shoulder as he smoothed down her stomach towards the junction of her thighs. His eyes were looking into hers again and she sighed, stifling the groan that yearned to escape her throat. She spread her lips with her fingers, the hot water running over her clit and this time she did moan softly, pressing into his body. She dipped inside, slicking up her fingers and rubbed quick circles around her clit nearly desperately, his cock pushing slowly inside of her. She was quickly building towards her orgasm and she leaned against the shower tiles, her knees starting to shake, her body, mind and soul tingling with the intense need for release.

“Dean,” she sighed softly at the shower walls.

“I don’t give a shit about you,” Dean said harshly making Delilah sober up and freeze tensely in shock.

“No,” she pleaded softly with herself, trying to go back to his arms, to kissing his lips, “Don’t do this, please don’t.”

The memory of Dean’s fists connecting with her face made her squeeze her eyes shut and dissipated the last of her arousal, bruises blossomed once more on her skin, and she pleaded with him to stop, one memory merging with another, blurred by partial repression. “Next time, I won’t almost kill you, you’ll be dead and gone.”

A tear left a cool trail down her cheek and the numbness returned as she pulled her hand away and turned off the water. She stood there a moment trying to remember all the reasons why she couldn’t just crawl back under her covers. Then, she stepped out of the tub and grabbed her towel from where it was hanging on the wall, going back to her morning ablutions: scrubbing her teeth and brushing out her long hair mechanically. She braided it down her back and then headed back out towards the office she had been squatting for a month, trading in the tiles and concrete of the bunker for wood and painted plaster and nonetheless feeling trapped by the cage in her mind.

A light was on somewhere in the house now, probably in the kitchen by the looks of it. Most likely Jody getting the coffee going like she did every morning.

When faced with the dilemma of where to set up Delilah, Jody had not hesitated to let her into her husband’s office. The same way, she imagined, that she hadn’t hesitated to put up Alex, her orphaned ex-vampire girl, in her son’s room. Delilah was a little surprised to find that the girl they had rescued at the beginning of March was still living at Jody’s, figuring the sheriff would have set her up in foster care, but it seemed Jody had decided to keep her. “Who else out there can understand the horror of what she went through? I can help her, Delilah. I am helping her.” Delilah had shrugged and gone back to looking around at the room Jody was setting her up in: a room forgotten by time, and up until she had walked in it, untouched by anybody in four years.

Jody had tried to buy a bed for the room, in an attempt to make it more comfortable, but Delilah had refused, convincing her that she didn’t mind couch surfing since she wasn’t sure just how long she would be staying with the sheriff before she would move on. This was just temporary. She would find herself a place as soon as she could get a job.

“Well, maybe, but as long as you’re staying with me, I won’t have any of that credit card fraud and impersonating FBI agents bullshit I know Sam and Dean got you into. I will feed you, but for everything else: you want something, you pay for it, legitimately.”

Delilah had agreed and then hidden herself away in Sean Mills’s office. She longed for the simpler days, before the Winchesters, when she had been working in an office, doing easy mindless work to pay her bills. But a nagging voice, a feeling emitted from deep inside of her and mostly faint by the time it reached her consciousness, was reminding her that those days hadn’t been that great. She had been nothing more than a lifeless drone back then, doing what she had to do to pay the rent and feed her belly… survive. Well, she had done it then and she could do it again.

Jody had helped her find a job doing data entry in the accounting department of the city offices, which just so happened to be on the second floor of the sheriff’s building. She went about her days, slapping a smile on her face and pretending everything was fine, while at night she would barely get a couple hours of sleep before the nightmares drove her to the living room couch and mind-numbing television.

Delilah rummaged through the pile of clothes on the floor, pulling out a pair of dark grey dress pants and a black shirt. She brought each to her nose and smelled the fabric, trying to decide if she could wear it to work one more day or if the clothes was destined for the laundry. She decided they were fine and laid them out on the couch, then she looked through her duffle bag for socks and underwear. She dropped her towel, catching the reflected movement in one of the darker framed pictures and drawing her attention.

She looked down at herself, her hand smoothing over her anti-possession tattoo on her right thigh. “Hunters and their protective sigils,” echoed Abaddon’s voice in her head, “Where are you hiding yours, so I can rip it to shreds?”

Hunters and sigils. Delilah looked down at her left palm, at the thin line from where she had cut herself back in July in order to banish the banshee, her first real case. Back then she had barely known anything and now, not even a year later she was weighed down by knowledge and experience. “You look like a hunter,” Dean whispered in her ear and she raised her hand to her shoulder, where the vampire had chowed down on her. She shrugged off the memory of Dean’s gentle comfort and hurriedly got dressed, hiding the vestiges of the last year of her life. By the time she left the room, her face was composed, and she was ready to meet the day head on.

 

“That is not breakfast, Alex,” Jody’s voice reached Delilah as she turned the corner and walked into the kitchen. Clearly the morning drama was already in full swing.

The tall, black haired, teenage girl with ivory skin and big blue eyes was sitting at the counter separating the kitchen from the dining area. She was looking as sullen as she had the first time she had met her, sitting in one of the interview rooms at the sheriff’s station, staring out the window and pointedly ignoring her and Dean as they tried to get information from her.

“I’m not hungry, Jody. Would you lay off?” she said, speaking in her usual soft and low tone and still managing to sound belligerent.

Delilah walked past Jody and made a beeline for the coffee maker, noticing the sun already creeping over the horizon as she glanced out the window over the sink. She grabbed a cup from the cupboard and poured herself a dose. Then she turned to lean back against the counter and took a sip, the bitter liquid searing her throat and helping to dissipate the morning fog, sending her painful memories and thoughts back to time out.

“That’s not breakfast either,” Jody told her before stalking off back towards the bedrooms in annoyed defeat.

Delilah took another sip of the blessed coffee and turned towards the girl who was reaching into the fruit basket on the counter, rummaging around and pulling out a banana. She looked up at her and Delilah raised her eyebrows. The teen girl shrugged apologetically, and a shadow of a smile danced over her face. Delilah scoffed quietly.

“Why do you always give her such a hard time?”

“Kids are supposed to give their parents a hard time. She expects it. I wouldn’t want to disappoint her,” she explained, matter-of-factly, taking a bite out of the fruit and pulling out a notebook, reading over what looked like class notes.

“You don’t give me a hard time.”

“Naw, of course not. You’re definitely not a parent. More like a weird aunt.”

Delilah found herself smiling. She had to hand it to the kid, she had adjusted to the new situation very quickly. She kind of admired her for that. Delilah was finding it much harder to adjust back into normal life than she’d had adjusted to hunting monsters. It was clear which of the two she felt she belonged to, but that life had rejected her, time and again over the past year. She could take the hint and move on. She had moved on. If she could just get rid of these dreams she only half remembered when she woke up but filled her with unease and longing. Longing for him.

She took another sip of coffee, the liquid doing its magic again and chasing away the quickly darkening thoughts. She looked over at Alex, again. She was wearing her usual attire: skinny jeans held up by a leather belt, a loose, long-sleeved, cotton, collared shirt thrown over a t-shirt and only buttoned part of the way. From the looks of it, she had a second t-shirt underneath it all too, not to mention the zippered hoodie hanging over the back of the chair.

“You think you got enough layers there? It’s not that cold, you know.”

Alex tightened her jaw and pulled her shirt collar up closer to her neck and didn’t answer, continuing to look over her notes. Delilah reached up and rubbed at the scar on her own shoulder sympathetically. She knew all about hiding scars… of all sorts.

“So,” Delilah said, changing the subject and forcing a more cheerful attitude, feeling around to make sure her human mask was firmly in place, helped along by another dose of caffeine, “What’s the plan for today? You finally going to ask that girl to hang out? Iris, right?”

Alex shrugged again, “I dunno. Maybe.”

If finding out that Alex was staying with Jody more or less permanently had been a surprise, finding out that the sheriff had enrolled her in the local high school had been an even greater shock. Considering what had happened to her, she figured the girl would be too damaged, or set back for mainstream schooling, but leave it to Jody to impose normality on the most screwed up people. It was like her personal form of therapy. Delilah wondered if that’s how she had pulled through her own family’s deaths… by burying herself under layers of normality.

Alex did seem to be doing fine though: she spent her evenings doing her homework, or drawing in her sketchbooks, keeping to her own room much of the weekend like every sulking teenager, ever. At dinner, they all sat together, and Jody and Delilah chatted amiably about their days and the people who worked in the city offices and sheriff’s department. They occasionally coaxed brief responses from Alex as she picked at her food. It was at night, once Jody had gone to bed and Delilah sat in the living room trying to drown the memories rattling around in the back of her head and trying to pierce through with mindless television and alcohol, that sometimes Alex would creep back out of her room and join her.

At first, they had just sat in silence, understanding their need for companionship, without the added pressure of interaction. After a while though, Alex had started opening up about her loneliness at school, going so far as asking Delilah for advice on how to approach people. Which had made Delilah shake her head humourlessly… how the hell would she know?

“What about you?” Alex asked, interrupting her thoughts and drawing her attention back to the moment. “You finally gonna go on that date?”

Delilah suppressed a groan thinking about the foolish guy she worked with who had somehow missed the “damaged” sign tacked to her forehead and asked the new girl out for drinks last week. At the time she had told him she would have to check her schedule and get back to him, but she never had. She just couldn’t see herself getting involved with anyone. God knows she needed a good fuck, but she was worried. Sad, green eyes looked out at her from where they lived in the back of her mind and she shuddered again at how she both yearned for those eyes and the hunter they belonged to and was terrified of them to her core. What if those eyes showed up on her date? What if they didn’t, she wondered sadly.

All due respect to Jody’s imposing normality, but you can’t peer through the looking glass and expect the world to look the same afterwards… and she and Alex had both tumbled headlong into that rabbit hole. Was there even a way back from Wonderland?

Delilah looked over at the girl, again, who had gone back to reading her notes in the silence left behind by her troubled contemplations. She truly believed that Alex had a real shot at living the normal, apple pie life Jody seemed hellbent on giving her. And, she would be goddamned if she didn’t do everything she could to make that happen too. Maybe Alex could show her the way back from the topsy-turvy world she had left behind.

“Tell you what,” Delilah said, Alex looking up at her with her clear blue eyes that could see straight through into her soul, “I’ll talk to… what’s-his-name, if you talk to Iris… Deal?”

Alex’s mouth tugged into a tentative smile and Delilah found herself returning it briefly before turning away from the girl’s disconcertingly trusting gaze, using tidying up her coffee cup as an excuse to get away from what she saw in them and the painful stab it gave her to her chest.

“You’re still here?” Jody said loudly as she rushed back into the kitchen like a whirlwind. “Come on guys, let’s get going! Alex, I am not driving you to school if you miss the bus again.”

Alex rolled her eyes and stood up, tossing her notes into her backpack and grabbing her sweater from behind the chair. She did give Delilah a little corner smile as they crossed gazes though and Delilah gave her a wink, watching her slink out towards the front door, her shoulders stooped beneath the weight of her school bag.

“I’m proud of you, honey! Have a great day!” Jody called out in forced cheeriness, her words cut off by Alex closing the door behind her a little hard, making the framed painting of a field under a stormy sky in the entrance rattle and tilt. Jody’s shoulders sagged slightly, and she turned towards Delilah who was making her own way towards the entrance so she could get her jean jacket out of the closet. “She hates me,” Jody said, sounding discouraged.

Delilah smiled to herself as she straightened the painting and threw on her jacket, remembering what Alex had just confessed about Jody’s expectations. “She doesn’t. You’re doing a good job, sheriff. She’s a good kid.”

Jody’s pixie face relaxed into an uncertain pout as she looked out the living room window towards where Alex was walking up the street to her bus stop. “I just worry about her,” she confessed to the sheer curtains.

Delilah looked out the window too, briefly, and remembered what she had seen in the teenager’s eyes. What she had seen was hope, and that glimmer, little though it was, would not be there if it were not for Jody. And if Jody could give Alex hope for a normal life, maybe there was hope for herself as well. And God knew how much she wanted that to be true.


	3. Chapter 3

Alex glanced around the chaos that was the school bus, assaulted by the cacophony of morning chatter and taunts of confident teenagers gearing up for another day of accepted social interactions: the couple from science class already tongue wrestling in the furthest seats, some asshole seniors in their Marshall High School Panther’s jackets picking on a poor freshman just trying to make it to school, a couple of dolls in their perfect makeup busy comparing notes on the latest hotties in their fashion magazines, the occasional snoring, drooling sleepy head, somehow managing to catch a few extra Zs before getting to school. She spotted an empty bench seat as the bus lurched into motion and she slid down the worn and patched vinyl so she could stare out the window, clutching her school bag like a comforting teddy bear.

A raucous laugh startled her slightly and she turned towards the sound surreptitiously. She watched as two older boys shoved each other playfully with grins on their faces and called each other names. She turned away again as a memory surfaced: Connor and Dale teasing each other in the same way. How many late evenings had been punctuated by them pushing each other’s buttons until one of them snapped and put the other in some wrestling move, Finn egging them on until Mama stepped in? Cody had been the quieter one, always rolling his eyes at his brothers’ antics as though he was above them.

Alex smiled for a moment remembering her family warmly. Then in a flash, Cody’s head was chopped off in front of her in that jail cell, Jody holding the fire ax. Alex felt nauseous and clutched her bag more tightly. It was hard sometimes to remember that Jody had saved her. Some days it felt like she had taken everything away from her.

She tried to focus on the passing houses of suburban Sioux Falls, tried to banish the memories again, but was unable to stop the series of events from unfolding in her mind; the events that had led to her living here in Sioux Falls with the sheriff. For eight years, she had lived with Mama and her four brothers, moving every few months at first, but then settling for longer periods of time as she got better at providing fresh victims for them. She winced remembering some of the people she had lured back home so her vampire family could feed. It had all become too much for her, the guilt of all those people, their blood on her hands.

It had been two months and that day was still haunting her thoughts. She had decided to leave. She couldn’t take the sound of one more scream, one more unsuspecting victim as her brothers drained them of their blood. So, she had headed to the bus station when the rest of the family had gone out, hoping Mama and her brothers would be away long enough for her to get far enough that they would not find her. She hopped the first bus out of Nebraska and ended up here in Sioux Falls, waiting for the next bus to take her even further. But she had been hungry, and alone, and one failed attempt at shoplifting some food from the market had landed her in a cell in the sheriff’s station. The night had gone from bad to worse though when Cody had shown up, right on her trail. He had followed her all the way from O’Neil and found her, so easily. She had been terrified that he would hurt her, but he only wanted to bring her back home. And then Jody had killed him and the shock had been so intense, her mind had frozen staring at her brother’s decapitated body. Sometimes, though, when she could think about that night clearly, she realized that she had also been a slight bit relieved, even then.

After killing Cody, Jody had called the hunters. Mama had painted hunters like vampire boogeymen, telling stories to her and her brothers to keep them in line. Keep your head down and follow the rules, or hunters would find them. Other nests they had come across had even mentioned the name “Winchester” once or twice, telling stories about them like Grimm’s fairy tale; the Winchesters came in the day and wiped out entire families. Meeting them had been like seeing monsters come to life, only these monsters wore suits and hid behind FBI badges. They had done to her family exactly what those stories had said they would. One after the other, her brothers were all killed, exterminated like they were nothing more than pests.

Dean had nearly finished her off too. The memory was clouded by the pain of the sensory overload at the time: sounds hundreds of times louder than normal, lights a thousand times brighter, her skin crawling from the touch of the air and that pounding headache, that craving, that need for rushing blood. Mama had turned her, promising a relief from the guilt and the pain, telling her that as a vampire, all these terrible feelings would simply disappear. But they had not. The memories of those people she had brought to slaughter had still buzzed inside her head like angry wasps and when Jody had found her, they were all that had stopped her from sinking her teeth in her. That pain and that guilt.

Jody had come for her. Even though she hardly knew her, could not possibly care what happened to some stray, she had burst into that ratty house and had saved her, somehow convinced Dean not to kill her, even talked him into curing her. She had given her a home and shown her what it was to care about someone. She had not deserved it, but Jody Mills had saved her.

Alex took a deep breath, trying to steady her racing mind. The bus had steadily filled up around her while she had been lost in her thoughts and she looked around nervously, worried that she had phased out again. She had promised Delilah she would try to talk to people today and there she was completely out of it again.

Delilah. The hunter had shown up last month completely out of the blue and looking broken, a mere shell of the woman she had first met on that same day. She had been there when Mama, Dale and Connor had appeared at the cabin to take her away. She was bold and confident, walking around Jody’s cottage making it safe for them. Alex had no idea what had happened to her, but the pain had been clear in her golden-brown eyes, her face set in sorrow when Jody had brought her home too, her house turning into a halfway home for lost and broken girls. Delilah had quickly put on a brave face though and hid her pain away deep down, claiming to have quit hunting and wanting to rejoin the normal world. Jody had set her up with a job and every day she got up, had her coffee and went off to work like she had been doing it for years. Alex envied her ability to just put everything behind her and move on so easily from whatever it was that had brought her to them in the first place.

The bus came to a standstill in front of the school and all around her the students stood up and started spilling out onto the lawn, greeting friends from other parts of town and heading towards the building’s glass fronted and grey panelled entrance. Today, was the day she would talk to Iris. They had English Lit. just before lunch. Alex steadied her nerves with another deep breath, banishing the memories again, filling her mind with the soothing, damp smell of the dew-covered lawn before joining the rest of the swarm.


	4. Chapter 4

Delilah stared absently out the passenger window of Jody’s old pick up truck. They usually went in to work together, since they technically worked in the same building, although at times, Jody’s work forced Delilah to take the bus. Sioux Falls was a large town and the sheriff’s department covered a territory that went even further, so Jody was kept pretty busy and often had to stay beyond regular work hours, or even her scheduled shift, or come in unexpectedly at all hours. That was when Delilah would hop on the city bus that would drop her off at the depot near the city centre with its shopping and business districts. From there she transferred to the bus that would take her to the edge of the neighbourhood where Jody’s house was, and she would walk the last twenty minutes through country suburb roads to the front door.

Her eyes trailed along the city centre now, as Jody drove through it and turned up one of the main arteries, only fifteen minutes out from the station, and Delilah’s thoughts turned to the day ahead. She gazed out the window contemplating the upcoming social interactions. She thought about her promise to Alex and was torn again about what to do. She could just forget the whole thing, lie to the teenager, make up a story about her encounter with “the guy from work” but Delilah found herself feeling disturbed at the prospect of lying to Alex. If she expected her to try, she could only expect the same of herself.

“How’re you doin’, hun?” Jody asked her suddenly, snapping her back to the truck’s cab, which was painfully devoid of all the stories and history of the inside of the Impala; where were Jody’s vent Legos, and carved initials, and ashtray soldiers?

Delilah brought her focus back to Jody, who was still waiting for an answer to her question. “Fine. I’m fine,” she said, trying to sound convincing, though she couldn’t quite convince herself.

“Still getting the nightmares?”

“Uh, yeah,” she answered, truthfully, “but I think they’re getting better.”

Delilah turned her head enough to catch the sheriff’s sideways glance and smile and returned it quickly.

“I heard you tossing around this morning.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Just the same old stuff.”

She was so grateful for Jody’s friendship; where she would be now without her, she had no clue. Probably killed by some monster…

It hadn’t taken Jody long to get the story behind Delilah’s sudden appearance on her doorstep. One week of pretending everything was fine while barely getting a couple hours of sleep before the nightmares would drive her to the living room couch was all Jody had put up with before coming to crash in the armchair beside her in her jammies, curling up her legs under her, like she had been settling in to watch a good movie, and coaxing the story from her. Delilah had told her about Dean’s increasingly violent tendencies and confessed, in a near whisper, that he had hit her on a few separate occasions during his fits of rage. Delilah had tried explaining to the tight-lipped Jody about the Mark of Cain and the terrible effects it had had on the bearer. She had stopped short of telling her, though, about how he had left her comatose on the cement floor of Castiel’s headquarters, and what he had done that night they had returned to the bunker, instead hugging herself tightly while reliving in her mind how he had used her, bending her over the library table.

Jody had listened without interrupting while she recounted what she remembered of Dean’s farewell speech, most of it too blurred in her own mind to be recounted at all. When the tears had started falling, the drops leaking out of her in mourning of the happiness she had found and lost in loving the older Winchester brother, Jody had moved to sit beside her and held her in her arms until the sobs had finally subsided, leaving Delilah more exhausted than she had felt since landing in Sioux Falls.

Like some trickster was pulling strings, all too familiar notes started pouring out of the truck cab’s gritty speakers and her frown deepened as she stared at the tuner intently like she could make it stop merely with her thoughts. Too late though, the cab disappeared around her and she was thrown headlong into the memory.

_She was lying against his warm chest, both of them naked under the covers as she absently traced undefined shapes on his skin. A rumble started in his chest and for a moment she thought he had fallen asleep, the lamp still on beside the bed and she sighed contentedly, not wanting to tear herself away from him just to turn it off. His hand moved up from her arm and petted her hair slowly, passing his fingers through it and playing with the end of the strand and she realized the vibration was not in fact his usual soft snoring, but humming. She frowned trying to identify it, the rhythm of the hum sounding very familiar. She kept listening, not wanting the soothing rumble to stop._

_He kissed her forehead, and his lips started half-forming familiar words, “Hey lady…. You got the love I need. Mmmmm mmmm. Oh, darling darling darling… Stay a while with me… mmmmm.”_

_Delilah smiled. She didn’t think Dean realized what he was singing any more than a child does learning lyrics by heart, but they made her feel all warm and tingly._

_“Are you serenading me, Dean Winchester?” she couldn’t resist teasing him, as his humming tapered off._

_“What?” he asked, his voice still slightly rusty from their previous exertions._

_“I could swear, if I didn’t know any better, that you were singing a love song.”_

_“What? No! Over the Hills isn’t a love song.”_

_Delilah laughed and turned, lying on his chest, her arms crossed, her chin resting on them. She stared up towards his face, her eyes focusing on the thin straight line across the underside of his chin, cutting a narrow trench through his short facial hair._

_“What do you think the song is about, then?”_

_“Sex! And freedom and the open road,” he answered gruffly._

_“And finding love,” added Delilah obstinately, enjoying his squirming._

_“That’s got nothing to do with it. Just because he says love, doesn’t mean it’s “love” love. It was the seventies…. He’s talking about sex.”_

_“Oookay, Winchester…. Whatever you say.”_

_Delilah rolled her eyes teasingly and rolled off his chest again and away from him, her neck resting on his outstretched arm. With a sudden shift, he clasped it across her shoulders while he pressed himself to her, his other arm coming to hold her tightly around the waist._

_“Many times, I’ve loved,” he belted into her ear, his usual, slightly off-key voice made unpleasantly strained as he unsuccessfully tried to imitate Plant’s more strident screech. “And many times, been bitten. Many times, I’ve ga-azed, along the open rooad!”_

_“Oh God! Make it stop!” Delilah teased, laughing, while she tried half-heartedly to get away from the discordant sound._

_Far from discouraged, Dean pressed on, continuing to hold her captive and grating out lyrics at her. He rubbed his rough beard shadow against her neck, tickling her, and she curled into a ball to defend herself, laughing. He held on tightly though, his singing finally interrupted by his own laughter: a deep rumbly chuckling sound in his chest and throat. Delilah couldn’t help but smile, the warm sound in her ear filling her up with well-being down to her toes._

_Then he rolled onto his back again and the sound that came out of him was an inhuman screech that made Delilah’s hair stand on end on her whole body. She yelled and pounced on him, straddling his hips and pressing her hands to his mouth to stop the lyric-less torture. Dean shook his head and kept vocalizing, his eyes squeezed tightly shut from his intensity. Delilah fell over to the side, her head hanging off the bed as she convulsed dramatically, one of her legs stretched across his lap._

_He stopped, laughing again as he sat up, his hand wrapping her calf, his palm so warm on her cool skin. She took a deep breath and stopped her twitching._

_“Oh, thank God! I thought we were being attacked by a banshee again.”_

_He was looking down at her, but his gaze was distant and pensive, his hand absently smoothing along her leg._

_“What’s wrong?” she asked him, dropping her teasing tone and laying her hand on his arm._

_He made a soft sound in his throat, halfway between a chuckle and grunt, and his eyes focused on hers. “Nothing. Just thinking.”_

_He lay back down against the pillows and looked up at the ceiling, his arm bent behind his head, the pensive look still on his face. Delilah sat up and curled her legs to the side as she scooted closer to him, laying her hand on his chest as she looked down at him. Over the Hills drifted back into her thoughts and she sang her favourite part of the song, showering him with the words, trying to comfort the sadness back out of his eyes._

_“Many dreams come true, and sometimes silver linings. I live for my dreams, and a pocket full of gold.”_

_A half-smile crept back onto his face and he reached up and cradled her face with his hand. “This is my silver lining,” he whispered._

_Delilah smiled and cocked her head to the side, sending her hair rippling in a brown cascade over her shoulder, “Not a dream come true?”_

_She watched in dismay as her teasing failed to draw the soft chuckling sound out of him again and instead his eyes lost their focus and sadness suffused his features._

_“Some dreams are just too hard to wake up from,” he said, mostly to himself, his gaze looking past her at something that was not there, a memory, or reminder, never far from the hunter’s battle-weary mind. It broke her heart to see him that way. She put her hands on either side of his face and leaned down to kiss him tenderly; their lips pressed together until he started responding, capturing her lower lip with his then flicking at her open mouth with his tongue. She moaned, feeling herself becoming aroused by his irresistible sensuality as his arms pulled her close to him again._

“Delilah?” asked Mandy, tearing her away from the memory.

Delilah looked into her co-worker’s concerned face and then looked around herself wondering when she had gotten to work. She glanced down at the time on the computer and realized it was actually just past ten thirty. She tried to cover up her surprise and slight alarm by laughing.

“Sorry, Mandy. I was distracted. Did you need anything?”

Delilah half listened as the girl in the plaid shirt requested, ever politely in her quiet, accented voice, a particular document that Delilah would need to go find in the filing room. She jotted down the information on a post-it and promised to get to it as soon as she could. Mandy smiled at her and walked away.

Delilah turned back to face her desk, shocked to discover that she was well entrenched in her daily tasks. She realized that she had phased out again and had been running on automatic. That hadn’t happened in over a week, not this completely anyways. She sometimes drifted in her thoughts while she worked, but this level of immersion, where she was no longer aware of her surroundings or even her own actions… it had been a while. And it left her with a mild feeling of failure, like she had just tumbled back down that steep slope out of depression just when she had almost caught a glimpse of the top.

Delilah’s shoulders slumped, and she rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache forming. With a sigh, she pushed off from her desk and stood up. She could go get Mandy’s document and then stop by the kitchen on the way back and refill her coffee cup.

Delilah played with the sticky band behind the post-it, getting some strange enjoyment from the pull of the glue on her skin and the accompanying sound, while she headed for the file room. She found herself quietly humming a few notes and bobbing her head slightly. Was she actually in a good mood? She wondered absently to herself. She smiled, realizing that she did actually feel pretty good. She turned her head to the side, catching sight of one of her coworkers coming out of the small break room at the end of the hall. Now would be a perfect time to take him up on that date, she figured, feeding off her unexpected confidence.

The smile wavered from her lips and she stopped humming suddenly, the inside of her mouth drying up instantly and she worked her throat trying to swallow nothing. She ducked into the file room quickly, relieved that he hadn’t seen her. She was feeling like a fool, the ephemeral happiness she had felt before disappearing in a wisp, just as the Zeppelin tune puffed out of her thoughts.

She waited a few moments for her brain to start working, and then the embarrassment came flooding in and she leaned her head against the side of one of the filing cabinets. “Stupid,” she berated herself under her breath, but she wasn’t quite sure whether she was critical of her wussing out, or if just the idea of asking someone out was the stupidity. She found the document for Mandy quickly and photocopied it, returning the original to its place. She dropped off the paper on her desk, relieved that she wasn’t actually there, allowing Delilah to return to her own cubicle to be alone with her routine.


	5. Chapter 5

Alex sat at her desk staring at the closed cover of her notebook. Lit. was usually one of her favourite classes – the teacher was nice, and he had a way of explaining that made even the most complicated and boring texts seem mysterious and exciting. Today, though, Alex couldn’t focus on his animated discussion about the latest chapters that had been assigned to them.

She glanced again to the right where a platinum blonde girl with chin length loose corkscrew curls sat a few rows ahead. She had her head leaning on her hand, her elbow up on the desk, and it almost looked like she was paying attention to the lesson except she didn’t even bother taking any notes and her head kept bobbing rhythmically to some imperceptible music. She was wearing torn black skinny jeans, bright blue Chuck Taylors, and a loose, off the shoulder t-shirt, her bright pink bra strap showing. This was Iris, and Alex had promised Delilah she would try to talk to her today.

Alex cast her eyes back down to her notebook. Most of the students at Marshall were boring and uninteresting to her. The bubbly personalities of the overly done up girls she often crossed at the washrooms – constantly touching up perfect make up and brushing untangled hair while gossiping non-stop – didn’t really strike her as people she would get along with. God, one of them was applying another layer of lip gloss mid-lecture, Alex thought glancing to her left where Annabeth, one of the dolls, was sitting by the window, compact mirror in hand. She shifted her gaze over to the boy sitting in front of her. Shawn was handsome and popular, and all the sophomore girls swooned around him like he was a god. He and Henry, sitting beside him, were on the school football team and were hardly ever seen without their red and yellow Marshall jackets and at least two other team members in tow. It was the same with the girl jocks, never seen outside of the fleet. Alex didn’t think she’d fit in with them either, sports were not her thing.

There were all sorts of groupings at Marshall, beyond just the sports enthusiasts. Some were obviously bound together through common interests, like the mathletes and chess clubbers. Some were geekier and video game and comic book oriented. However, many more of the groupings were clearly bound together by more than just common interests, they were people who had obviously been friends for many years. How was she supposed to try and squeeze into these tight knit friendships? What was she supposed to tell them when they asked about her past and where she’s from? Oh, hey! I’m Alex, I was kidnapped by vampires when I was eight and I’m responsible for the death of hundreds of people.

For eight years, her social interactions had been limited to her vampire family and the men and women she had brought home to them for feeding. Her socialization was based mostly on programs and movies that happened to play on the little television her family carted with them town-to-town, turning the antenna, hoping to get a clearer picture, but mostly settling for staticky reception. On most days, she found the hustle and bustle of school – being surrounded by hundreds of loud, rambunctious teenagers – incredibly disorienting. Mostly, she just went from class to class avoiding talking to anybody. The names she had managed to learn so far were few, and mostly garnered from listening in on conversations. She had been watching people for so long, watching and listening in order to hone in on potential victims, it had become a habit. Whenever people started talking around her, she’d listen for names, routines, interests, family ties, anything she could use to lure them away. And she remembered all of them. Her family’s victims… her victims: their names, their dreams, so many details about the lives of these people who were all now dead. Because of her.

Alex crossed her arms tightly over her chest and closed her eyes, trying to suppress the shudder running through her. All that was over now, she reminded herself again, she didn’t have to worry that whoever she spoke to would become vampire bait. Talking to her was not a curse, or a death sentence. The vampires were dead, and they were not coming back.

She glanced again towards the blonde. She couldn’t quite understand why she thought Iris would be a good person to try and socialize with. She was loath to use the term friend just yet, that was a little too daunting at the moment, but it would be nice to know someone who would not dismiss her outright, someone she could maybe wave to in the hallway without feeling stupid… maybe she would even wave back.

“Miss Jones, when you have a minute, maybe you’d like to join us back here on Earth?” the voice of Mr. Salerno, the Lit. teacher, suddenly cut in through her reflections. She looked up and found, to her absolute horror, that the entire class was turned around in their seats and staring at her, including Iris. Alex was mortified, her heart doing its best to jump out of her chest and crawl up her throat as she tried to swallow down the anxiety induced nausea. She slid down in her seat a little, feeling like a bug in a jar. Why wasn’t he going back to the lesson? Why was everyone still looking at her? Her eyes flicked from face to face, growing more anxious with each gaze she crossed, her eyes somehow landing on Iris’s black lined ones more often than anyone else’s. “Miss Jones?” the teacher prompted again.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Salerno,” Alex managed to choke out and the teacher finally went back to his discussion on poetic devices in literature, leaving her to flounder in the fading spotlight as the students turned back to the lesson as well. Alex breathed a sigh of relief, changing her mind about how nice the Lit. teacher was, now imagining him with horns and a pitchfork.

Her eyes strayed over to the blonde again as she realized that she was still turned towards her. Alex averted her eyes quickly, trying to look anywhere but at the girl who now undoubtedly thought she was a freak. She instinctively pulled her shirt collar towards her face, making sure her old bite scars were well hidden. She kept her eyes fixed on her desk, the notebook pages blank, her pen untouched. When she dared to look up again, what felt like hours later, but could not have been more than minutes, Iris had turned back to the front. Alex was struck by a wave of self-loathing as she berated herself mentally for alienating her.

The bell could not come quick enough for Alex, and as soon as it started to ring, she grabbed her bag and took off like a pebble in a slingshot, heading straight out the door, down the hall and down the stairs as quickly as she could short of running. She didn’t stop until she had reached her locker. She spun the combination lock and opened the narrow metal storage unit, tossing her bag inside in frustration. As she stood there, staring into the small cramped space allocated to her for her school things, she felt discouraged and hopeless. She was alone in the room where all the sophomore girls’ lockers were jammed together, and she sat down on the small wooden bench facing the far row. What was she supposed to do now? She was undoubtedly already being discussed as that freaky new kid who spaced out in Lit. How was she supposed to talk to people when that’s all they would see? And what if they found out exactly how much of a freak she truly was, what then?

As the first of the lunch crowd started filling the locker room, Alex stood up and reached for her backpack again, in a hurry to not be there when Iris showed up. She took out her English Lit. books and stuffed in her books for her afternoon classes: physics and art. She closed her locker up again and left the room keeping her eyes aimed at the ground in front of her to avoid meeting anyone’s stares.

 

Alex joined the line in the cafeteria, slinging her bag over one shoulder as she glanced at the day’s menu by the door: beef stroganoff. She bit at her lower lip and sighed, discouraged. She grabbed a lunch tray and skipped ahead to where they had set out bowls of Caesar salad. She took one and served herself a bowl of soup, taking a bun as well. Ever since she had been turned into a vampire, there was something about meat that just made her nauseous. It smelled like blood: that faint metallic tang that just couldn’t be masked by sauces and spices. She couldn’t quite get rid of the memory of the yearning for blood – the liquid pumping through Dean Winchester as he forced that cure crap down her throat, and later Jody’s veins as she held her in her arms and rocked her like a child so tantalizing. The desire to sink her teeth into all of them had been so strong that now, a slight whiff of it with her human nose was enough to make her nauseous. And then going through that cure, the pain and vomiting, cold and hot… it was enough to turn her off meat forever. Not that she had told anyone this. How could she even begin to explain to Jody that she couldn’t stomach meat because she remembered the sound of her blood pumping in her veins? No, best to simply opt out of any meat dish offered to her and let Jody pile that on top of her list of frustrations with her.

She presented her student card to the clerk at checkout, so he could scan it, and then picked up her tray turning to look over the general population steadily assembling and grouping in the large school cafeteria with its orange walls and blue columns. The ceiling was covered in tubes, pipes and metal vents, the walls were made of concrete blocks, amplifying the noises and making them echo in the room as it filled with boisterous teenagers. She was already getting a headache.

She looked around with apprehension trying to figure out where she could sit. Those ridiculous high school movies had it all wrong. The cliques were not easily identifiable and labelled: jocks didn’t all walk around in their team jackets, and students wearing the school jacket weren’t all jocks, nerds didn’t all wear two-inch-thick glasses and argue about astrophysics, the kids dressed all in black weren’t necessarily all friends, the geeks didn’t spend their time arguing video games and trading cards and the popular girls weren’t all colour coordinated in skimpy outfits with matching accessories. Her first day here, and every lunchtime since, had been a source of anxiety for her, and today was no different. Most days, Alex didn’t even bother having lunch, preferring to retreat to a secluded corner in an empty hallway, or a deserted sports field’s metal bleachers. There, she would draw in her sketch book or do her homework, or even stare absently, as her memories swirled around her.

Alex’s eyes suddenly stopped their sweep of the room and landed on Iris’s platinum blonde curls. She froze, caught off-guard. As she watched her, Delilah’s words came back to her and she remembered that she had promised to at least try. Iris was deep in conversation with a few people who were sitting at the table with her. Alex didn’t quite recognize them, and she found them somewhat intimidating. The boys were almost certainly seniors, she thought as she looked at their faces: one of them had a bright red mohawk on his head, a jean vest covered in patches over a t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, torn jeans and long chains dangling from his bullet-lined belt. The other one had short, slightly curling, jet-black hair flopping into his face, a leather jacket and calf high black combat boots. There was also a couple of sophomore girls that she recognized from her art class but couldn’t remember their names. They were dressed simply in band t-shirts and torn jeans, multicoloured paint spatter all over them like they had attacked each other with loaded brushes.

Alex took a deep breath and started walking towards the table, aiming to ask if she could sit with them. With every step she took, she could hear the blood whistling in her ears, and feel her heart beating out of her chest. It was becoming harder to breathe too, like her lungs had suddenly forgotten how to lung. She drew level with their table and Iris turned her grey eyes on her and suddenly she was tongue-tied and frozen. Her brain stopped processing the things around her, the noises muting, her rushing blood all she could hear as the panic took over her body. She managed to turn away, abruptly, and headed straight out towards the cafeteria’s outside door, dropping her tray of untouched food by the washing station. She rushed outside into the uncertain May air and away from the cripplingly terrifying prospect of social obligation.


	6. Chapter 6

Matt first became aware of the blood rushing through his body and pounding inside his skull, his heart pumping and beating against his ribs. Next, came the sweet, sickening smell of decay and his eyes snapped open. At least he thought they were open. He could see nothing of the world beyond his eyelids, the slightly damp darkness pressing in around him and causing him to squeeze his eyes shut tightly against the discomfiting claustrophobia. He opened them again and tried to look around, but he was seized with an intense vertigo; it felt like he was floating in a void and he was completely disoriented, unable to know which way was up and which was down, nor where his own body was in relation to the rest of the lack of décor.

He attempted to bring his hands up to his face and felt them scraping against the humidity slicked stone ground. Finally, the world righted itself in his mind as he moved his body against the rough stone and pushed against gravity to stand on his feet. He put his left foot down and a sharp pain shot up his leg as it gave under his weight and he fell to his knees with a painful cry. His injured ankle throbbed dully, as though angry with Matt for his unwitting abuse. He sat and reached down his leg, feeling the bone along his shin and down to his foot. The ankle was tender and felt swollen and warm under his fingers – it was most likely broken.

The sickly smell tickled his nostrils again and he remembered the attack, though he had no idea what had jumped him. His mind conjured the sharp teeth and projected them against the darkness making him shudder. Had it gotten Kayla too? Was she here? Where ever “here” was… He suddenly hoped that she had ditched him before he had been attacked and that she was safe. Whatever animal it was, he had to get out of there before it came back.

He carefully turned over onto his hands and knees and slowly crawled forward, trying to move his injured leg carefully to avoid more pain, but found that it was unavoidable and ground his teeth together against it. He had barely taken a few steps that the top of his head connected with something hard and he yelped in pain, clutching his throbbing skull with his arms and falling to the ground again.

“God fucking damn it!” he yelled out in frustration and pain, then straightened up again feeling ahead of him for what he had hit. His hands found the smooth, flat, slightly damp, rock surface and he felt around in all directions, the uneven bumps and ridges sliding under his palms as far as he could reach left, up and right and connecting to the equally rocky ground. He pulled himself up to his right foot, using the rock wall for support, and leaned back against it, closing his eyes again a moment trying to calm himself.

Sudden realization hit him, and he scrambled to dive into his pants pocket for the object he hoped would be his salvation. The familiar, comforting shape fit into his palm like it always did and he pulled it out, swiping at the glass screen. The usually smooth surface felt scratchy and caught at the skin of his thumb troublingly. The phone refused to turn on. “No, please God, no!” he mumbled to himself, his voice bouncing back at him right away. He pushed on the button at the top of the phone holding his breath and the broken screen finally turned on, the crisscrossed web-like lines distorting the picture of the black Mustang GT with the bikini clad model smiling back at him. His relief was short lived though as he saw the two words in the top left-hand corner of his screen: no signal.

He raised the phone above his head, his eyes glued to those two little words, begging for even the barest trace of a signal to appear, but no matter where he pointed the device, they would not budge. He closed his eyes again, taking deep breaths trying to keep the rising panic at bay. He had to get out of there.

He looked down at his phone again and swiped the screen to access the tools. He tapped the flashlight app and the camera flash turned on suddenly, illuminating his feet where the phone was pointing. He raised his hand shining the light around him. Though the previous pitch-black darkness had been claustrophobic, what he saw now did little to alleviate it. He shone the light around at eye level and was met with more smooth rock walls, glistening with humidity as the light refracted through the droplets. The distance to the other side was hard to gauge in the spotlight of his phone but if the light touched the other wall, it was not a good sign.

Something on the ground caught his attention – a strange raised formation like a pile of rocks of varying sizes and shapes – some small like pebbles and other long and thin – but clearly a different colour from the surrounding walls. He made his way towards it cautiously, leaning on the wall to avoid putting weight on his injured ankle. His right foot kicked at something making a strange porous sound, more like an empty tube than compact rock. He bent down to pick it up, shining the circle of light from his phone towards it. It was smooth and greyish-white, and one end was broken and jagged like an ice pick. He looked at it more closely and dropped it in horror, recognizing it for what it was: a bone. A large bone. Not something that would come from a cat or even a dog, something much bigger. He turned his light back onto that pile and he realized it was in fact a mound of bones picked dry of any and all meat previously attached to it. Whatever had attacked him, made it a habit of attacking large animals from the looks of it.

Barely keeping the panic at bay, he hobbled past the pile and came upon a depression in the wall, almost like a hidden nook. He approached it, hope lapping at him – maybe he had found an exit out of this place. When he aimed his light inside though, what he saw made his stomach churn and convulse, sending bile shooting up into his throat. He turned away, choking down the sourness, but the image was there, carved into his eyes by the lack of anything else to see: human skulls, neatly stacked like the grotesque décor of a pirate cavern, macabre and grinning with their empty eye sockets.


	7. Chapter 7

Delilah sat at the table in the break room picking half-heartedly at her re-heated leftovers from dinner the previous night: meatloaf, peas and mashed potatoes. Mandy and Tanya were all wrapped up in their conversation and Delilah was more than happy letting them carry on without involving her. The daydream brought on by the song on the ride in had triggered a cascade of thoughts and ideas that were trying to push through the veil of suppression she had set up between herself and the past year. It had taken all she had to not start blurting monster lore at her co-workers when they had asked her to pass the salt.

_“Who would’ve thought that a table condiment could hold so much power over so many types of creatures,” Delilah mused out loud as she played with the container of salt on the table, what looked like the entire contents of Baby’s trunk spread out around it._

_“Focus,” Dean said, glaring at her from the chair at the end of the motel room table._

_She shot him a look back, narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips mockingly, before reaching for the silver knife in front of her. “Silver kills werewolves and shapeshifters and skinwalkers… Basically, if it can change shapes, kill it with silver.”_

_“Good. Vampires.”_

_Delilah put the silver knife down and looked at him annoyed again, “Seriously, Dean?”_

_“Vampires,” he repeated slowly like she was an idiot._

_She reached for the machete and held it out at the end of her arm like a pirate in a movie, “Chop off the head… badassiness optional, but recommended.”_

_A soft chuckle came from beside her and she turned her head just in time to catch his smile. Her heart fluttered in her chest and her stomach flopped. God, he was so handsome. He looked up at her, the smile still hanging on to the corners of his lips, his green eyes crinkled in mirth and she found herself smiling shyly as she put the machete down again._

_Dean cleared his throat. “Demons,” he said, and the moment passed, but the flutter remained._

Delilah snapped back to the present, her eyes still fixated on her food and she blinked back the mist in her eyes. Tanya and Mandy had changed topics and words like rosemary and yarrow were floating around her and pulling at her subconscious again. She saw herself pulling books from the shelves in the bunker library, looking through one of the many grimoires the Men of Letters had accumulated over the years. She remembered, from her studies, that yarrow root was a common ingredient in many spells, especially summonings, and rosemary was good in many banishment spells. How many of these ingredients had she forced herself to learn in case they came in handy? And now they were crowding her attempts at being normal, nudging at her thoughts annoyingly. Though she tried to suppress them, her rebellious brain, nonetheless continued to dredge up memories and Magnus, master of spells and ex-Man of Letters, swam up from deep down. She shuddered unable to stop the memory of Dean lopping off the man’s head. That had been his first kill with the first blade, and the moment, she had decided, when everything had changed between them.

Annoyed with herself, she sighed and wiggled in her chair, counting down the minutes before she could excuse herself and escape, yet, at the same time, forcing herself to stay where she was. This was normal, she reminded herself for the hundredth time, having lunch, with coworkers and discussing interests, like witchcra… GARDENING! Damnit.

“I don’t know, I was too freaked out to go jogging this morning, ya know?” said Tanya suddenly, finally drawing Delilah’s attention to the conversation completely.

“Why were you afraid of jogging?” she asked, making Mandy and Tanya look right at her with incredulous stares. “What?”

“Haven’t you heard those noises?”

Delilah frowned and shook her head, “What kind of noises?” she asked leaning forward, focused.

“They’re terrifying,” Mandy added in her clipped English, “I’ve never heard anything like them. All night, like children crying.”

“Children crying?” Delilah asked, wide-eyed. Changelings? Ghost maybe? “And you heard them too, Tanya?”

“Oh yeah. Yesterday morning. Forget jogging, I just ran all the way home.”

“Do you live in the same area?” Delilah asked her coworkers, the gears in her head turning full speed. Maybe they’re dealing with something using imitation… what imitates children?

“No, Mandy lives out in Minnehaha County and I’m near Harmadon.”

Jesus, that’s a huge territory, not a ghost if it’s so widespread, then what? “And you both heard this thing?”

“Yeah, it’s probably just coyotes, this time of year, they come out of the woods,” said Tanya, “And technically, they’re harmless to grown ups, but like hell am I going to risk getting mauled by a rabid coyote.”

“I never heard a coyote sound like this, Tan,” said Mandy, looking upset.

“Well, what else could it be?” Tanya reasoned.

Delilah had resolved to ask Jody about these odd noises, to see if others had reported hearing them too, when she suddenly snapped out of it, her mechanisms taking control again and quelling the instinct to find out more. She had given up monsters and hunting and she wasn’t just going to slip back into that mode. She pulled the curtain edges back tightly together, squeezing her fists, trying to stop the sudden tremors that were rushing through her.

“Oh, Dee! I’m so sorry,” Tanya said, laying her hand on her arm carefully, in a friendly gesture, much more familiar than their working relationship warranted and Delilah had to fight hard not to just pull away abruptly. “I keep forgetting that you’re still new to the area. It’s okay, nothing bad’ll happen, you just have to be careful about walking around at certain times, is all.”

“Um, I have work to do,” Delilah said, suddenly standing up, unable to take another second of the stimuli overdose from being around people while she was fighting the invasive thoughts.  
She grabbed her lunch stuff quickly, shoving her utensils and containers back into the book bag she used to tote her food to work. Mandy and Tanya kept up a steady protest, trying to get her to sit back down, until she was out of the break room and walking quickly back towards her desk.

She kept her eyes cast down while slowly, one-by-one, she let go of the thoughts about monsters and spirits and they shambled back to their hidden corners. She sighed with relief that there didn’t seem to be any major damage done to her fragile mental balance. Well, at least no new damage.

A pair of shoes came into her line of sight just in time for her to stop in her tracks and avoid collision. It didn’t stop him from reaching out and grabbing hold of her elbow like he was catching her before she fell. A flash of green eyes and the feel of a warm large hand steadying her as she tripped on a loose step, the smell of burning wood and flesh suddenly invading her nose, and Delilah found herself shaking away stray memories again.

“Whoa there!” said a male voice, the timber higher than the low gruff voice that had set her world ablaze that long ago night. “You alright, Delilah?”

Delilah looked up and realized she had landed face-to-face with Andrew, the coworker who had been looking to go out on a date with her. Delilah’s brain switched to overdrive again, like it had earlier when she had had to duck into the file room to avoid him. She gently pulled her arm out of his loose grasp and took a step back so they were standing more comfortably spaced.

“Hey, Andrew, I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“No problem!” he said, with a slightly nervous sounding chuckle while he rubbed the back of his head shyly.

Delilah couldn’t help but think he had his own kind of boyish charm, with the wire glasses perched on his perfectly straight nose; a nose that had clearly never come in contact with a fist, paw, wall or floor. He had a slightly shaggy haircut that flopped into his eyes if he tilted his head forward like he was doing just now, adding to his naïve innocence. This man had never met a monster, supernatural or otherwise, that was clear, and she had seen too much of both. What could this man possibly ever understand about the life she’d had? The realization filled her with a shame she hadn’t felt since her teen years and her instincts to run away from his dewy-eyed look was too much to ignore.

“I’m sorry, I have some work to get to,” Delilah said with a frown as she watched the smile slip off the man’s face.

She moved around him and took a few steps towards where her cubicle was. Suddenly, feelings of guilt and anxiety and hope, creeped in around the shame and mixed in with her remembered promise to Alex, and Delilah turned around, a rush of adrenaline coursing through her as she said his name.

He turned around and his eyebrows were raised in sincere curiosity and hope and for a moment he looked so much like Sam Winchester that it hit Delilah like a punch to the gut and all her good intentions flew out with her breath and she found herself unable to get the words out.

“What is it?” he asked, looking more concerned by the second and he took a step closer again.

The bindings holding her frozen and tongue-tied snapped and she hurriedly said, “Have a good day,” and then turned around, walking quickly back to the safety of her cubicle once more.

 

Delilah pushed off from her desk and rolled her head a few times, loosening the muscles in her neck. She reached her hand up and massaged her shoulder; the muscles taut under her fingers, the barely bumpy tissue around her bite scar was hardly noticeable through the fabric of her shirt, but to Delilah it felt huge, and ugly. You look like a hunter, he told her as he stood behind her, his hands on her arms, his warm breath on her hair as he kissed the back of her head.

She closed her eyes and dropped her hand to her lap. Why can’t he just leave her alone? she asked herself. She glanced at her phone to look at the time and stood up, gathering her things. Time for another day to be done, she thought, disappointed in her failed attempts at socializing; first alienating her co-workers with her questions and then running away from Andrew. What would she tell Alex?

She opened the door and headed down to the first floor where the sheriff’s department was. She pushed through the glass door, waving to Jim, the deputy on greeting duty, the man not bothering to return her wave, even though she knew he had seen her. He had been the one on duty when she had come in, looking like a rat dragged through Hell. Luckily though, he didn’t recognize her from her previous visit when she had been impersonating the FBI. Then again, who would? As far as everyone in the department was concerned, the Delilah now staying with the sheriff, had nothing to do with the agent they had once glimpsed, when that runaway had appeared in one of their cells. If any of them had made the connection with Jody fostering the teen and Delilah, they didn’t say anything, to her or the sheriff, or at least Jody hadn’t mentioned anything.

Delilah quickly spotted her through the interrogation room window, sitting at the table with a girl; her tightly curly brown hair the only thing she could see of her from this angle across the room. Delilah approached the closed room, and stood off to the side, now seeing the girl was maybe in her early twenties and looking a little distraught. Jody caught sight of her and subtly acknowledged her presence but continued taking notes on her notepad.

Delilah turned around and headed back towards Jim at the greeting desk, the rest of the officers in the department in the middle of their shift changes, some filling out reports, some going over the day’s activity. Nothing seemed to be much out of the ordinary, everyone mostly calm. Business as usual.

“Hey Jimbo,” she called out casually, finding herself interacting with him much more easily than with almost anyone in her own offices.

“Well, hi there, Kid Two. How’s it going today?” he asked back, sounding bored and automatic, not bothering to look up from his paperwork.

“You realize, of course, that I’m maybe ten years younger than the sheriff, right?” she bantered with him, shaking her head at his nickname for her. Alex was Kid One and she was Kid Two and she couldn’t convince him otherwise every time she saw him.

He looked up at her now, giving her a slow once over before returning to his work, “You keep telling yourself that, kid.”

She rolled her eyes and glanced back at the interrogation room. Jody was still in there, whatever was going on with that girl, it was pretty serious.

“Hey Jim,” she started again, leaning her elbow on the high counter, the man putting down his pen, annoyed at her interruptions, and looking back up at her, “Perp or witness?” she asked him, nodding her head towards the interrogation room.

He shook his head looking exasperated with her. “You know I can’t tell you that.”

She was about to argue with him when the door to the interrogation room opened and the girl came out looking flustered followed by Jody. No cuffs, Delilah noted, not a criminal then. “Thanks Deputy Jimbo. You’ve been a complete lack of help, as always.”

“You know I aim to please, Kid Two,” he said going back to his work before she could give him her death stare.

The girl who had been talking with Jody walked by her, clutching her purse tightly like a teddy bear, and went on out the door without even glancing up. Delilah turned and headed for Jody who was shuffling papers around on her desk, looking for something.

“Hey,” she said as she got close, “Ready to head out, sheriff?”

“I’m sorry, hun,” she said, finally pulling a paper from the bottom of a stack perched precariously on the corner of the desk. “Something just came up.”

“Does the something have dark curly hair?” she asked, quietly. Strictly speaking, Jody wasn’t supposed to disclose that kind of information to her, but given Delilah’s background, she did occasionally discuss with her a difficult case or just some inane details, but only on the drive home. Jody did not like shop talk around Alex.

“Yeah, missing person… potentially.”

“Potentially?”

Jody sat back in her chair and looked up at Delilah a moment, looking like she was trying to decide if she would share this one, or dismiss her. “Girl went hiking with a couple of friends yesterday and she’s worried her friend hasn’t checked in. She tried calling her but there’s no answer and no one has talked to her since they parted ways, as far as she can tell.”

Delilah couldn’t help but think about those sounds her coworkers had heard. Supernatural or not, it could be dangerous. “Do you think there might be… something… more, going on?” Delilah kicked herself, feeling like an idiot for not being able to keep her delusions to herself.

Jody sat back in her chair and looked up and Delilah was unable to meet her gaze, feeling like she had somehow said something dirty. “Naw,” the sheriff dismissed with a nose crinkle, “It’s probably just a couple kids, sneaking off for alone time.” She widened her eyes dramatically like she was shocked that young adults would do these things, making Delilah’s mouth pull into a half smile. “Anyways, so I’m just gonna look into it a bit; make a few calls. Don’t wanna give it to one of the deputies. It’ll probably turn out to be nothing anyways.”

“Right,” Delilah said, “Well, if it’s just a couple of calls, I can stick around a bit… irritate Jimbo some more. I could even help out, if you want,” she added quietly.

“Naw, thanks hun. Official sheriff business.” Delilah nodded her head and looked around at the sheriff offices. Of course, she was just a civilian, un-attached to law-enforcement in any way shape or form.  
Jody pulled her back out of her thoughts when she added, “I hate sticking you on that bus, but if you could get on home and keep Alex company, I’d appreciate it. I hate leaving her all on her own in the evenings.”

“Gotcha! Alright. Well don’t work too hard, and if you need anything just gimme a call, okay?”

Jody gave her a wide smile, showing off her perfectly straight white teeth, as she told Delilah again to get out of there. With a last farewell, she headed back out towards the door. “‘Night Jimbo,” she called out to the deputy. His irritated voice answered her with a gruff, “G’night, Kid Two,” making her roll her eyes again as she pushed open the door and she headed out through the building’s brightly lit lobby towards the sunset outside: grey clouds ringed in fire in the early evening.


	8. Chapter 8

Matt stared blindly into the darkness in front of him. He could feel it pressing against him, making the damp walls feel like they were moving in on him even though he couldn’t see them. Against his better judgment, he had kept the flashlight on his phone, unable to face being in the complete dark again and predictably it had drained the battery and now the phone was dead. How long had he been there? he wondered. How long before he became a part of that mound of bones?

He shuddered and hugged his knees to his chest, refusing to look to his right where he knew the grinning skulls were staring at him, even though he could not see them. He squeezed his eyes shut trying to stop the despair from settling in as residual images flashed before his eyes like ghosts flickering in and out just on the edge of his vision. Eyes open or closed though the darkness stayed the same and he opened them again hoping for something, anything to pierce the gloom.

He tilted his head back, feeling a tear squeeze its way out of his eye. “Please, God. Don’t let me die like this.” He drew in a shaky breath and closed his eyes again feeling like he was a moment away from breaking down. “I know I don’t deserve to be saved, but I am begging you, please, get me out of this nightmare.”

He blinked his eyes open again and stared at the grainy texture of the cavern wall where it curved into the ceiling. He frowned. Something didn’t seem right. His brain struggled to figure out what that was as he stared at the ceiling of the cavern. He looked around noticing with half interest, the contrast between the greyish colour of the stone and the harsh black line of the shadows along the ledge.

“Shadows?” he said in a confused whisper. Then suddenly it all fell into place and he sprang to his feet again, pushing himself off the wall and hopping across the floor of the cavern and leaning up against the other side looking straight up at what was clearly a ledge lit up by diffused light. There was light coming in from somewhere, and Matt was guessing if he could get up there, it would reveal the entrance of the cave, and his way out.

He attempted to jump up, but he didn’t even come near enough to catch the edge and pull himself up. He looked around, frantic to be out of there now that the exit was so close. He thought about getting a running start, but with his ankle, he didn’t think he could make it. He let out a frustrated growl as he pushed away from the wall, tugging at his hair. He had to get out of there. It was so close, but how could he reach it? He had nothing with him other than the clothes on his back, his cell phone and the pile of macabre human bones.

Maybe he could make a grappling hook using his shoe laces and a bone. He stared at the floor, still pitched in total darkness, the outside light too weak to reach this far into the cavern. He shook his head, “Really? A grappling hook? Be serious, this isn’t Batman.”

He turned around again and ran his palms along the stone wall, feeling again those natural bumps and cervices that were all over the stone. He studied the wall with his hands, reading it like brail. He looked up at the ledge again. He didn’t need to climb that high before he could reach it; all he needed was one or two good foot and hand holds and he could wall climb his way out.

He reached up to a crevice, no bigger than a crack, and stuck his fingers in it while feeling with his knees for a foot hold. A bump stood out just a little to the right. It would have to do. He pulled himself up with his finger tips and managed to settle his right foot on the foothold. He tried putting his weight on it but slipped. He landed on his good foot, painfully, managing to keep hold of the crack with his hands. He took a moment to breathe, this was not the time to rush. If he was going to get out, he had to stay calm. He pulled himself up again, feeling the strain in his fingers, feeling like they were going to be torn right off the rest of his hand. He settled his foot again, keeping it as flush to the wall as possible as he slowly straightened out his leg, his hands now at stomach level. He looked up. The ledge was right there, he just needed another little push up and he could grab it. Using his left knee, he felt around for another hold but could not find one. His fingers were going numb holding his body to the wall. He pulled out his right hand and found another hand hold a little to the right again. He held on to it with sweat slicked finger tips as he drew up his left foot and tried to wedge the toes of his sneaker into the crevice he had just been holing onto. It was going to be a tough one to pull himself up at that angle without being able to push off properly, but all he needed was a little push to reach the ledge.

He breathed in deeply, feeling the muscles in his arms starting to shake from the odd angles and unusual strain. He drew three quick breaths and pushed off with his right foot and pulled with his right hand. He pulled his left hand free and almost had it, feeling the skin tear on the sharp edge of the rock but he didn’t care. He reached for the ledge just as he transferred his weight to his left foot and suddenly, everything was pain, and bright lights as his ankle gave under the strain and sent him crashing to the cavern floor. Unable to catch himself, his head hit the hard-stone ground and then there was nothing.


	9. Chapter 9

Delilah walked in through the door, shaking off the humid cold. She took off her jean jacket and reached for the handle on the hall closet door beside her.

“Alex?” she called out, hanging her jacket up and closing the closet.

“Yeah,” came the girl’s belated, half-hearted response.

Delilah pushed the sleeves of her shirt up to her elbows and headed through the living room, turning the corner into the dining room and spotting the girl slouched over a college level spread of a mix of books, notebooks and binders. She had her long black hair draped over her shoulder and held back by her hand and she was sitting cross-legged on the chair at the head of the table as she scribbled notes on a printed homework page. She sighed loudly, letting out a whispered, “shit,” that would have had Jody climbing the sheer curtains in the living room.

Alex looked up and around past Delilah, startled, her eyes wide. “Sorry,” she mumbled to the wooden table as her eyes dropped back down.

Delilah shrugged, beyond caring if Alex had a vocabulary worthy of a salty sailor; the kid was raised by vampires, there were worse things than swearing that she could have picked up on. Suddenly, the girl threw her pencil, which landed nestled between two superimposed open textbooks, and buried her face in her hands. She pushed her hair backwards and held her head in frustration.

“Math?” Delilah asked, recognizing Alex’s typical reaction to her most hated subject.

“Yeah,” mumbled the taciturn teen.

Delilah nodded as Alex picked her pencil back up and used the eraser on the end to remove the offending marks on the page. Delilah turned the corner into the kitchen, pulling open the fridge door and grazing the contents. She decided on a bottle of water and unscrewed the cap going to lean her elbows onto the breakfast counter, watching Alex trying to work through her homework. She took a sip, secretly hoping that Alex had forgotten their morning pact and she wouldn’t have to recount her day’s embarrassing attempt at pretending to be normal.

“Where’s Jody?” Alex asked after a moment, putting her pencil down again in frustration.

“Working,” she answered, “Someone reported a missing person and she wanted to look into it. Hikers.”

Alex nodded her head, staring blankly ahead, a frown slowly forming on her face. Delilah hurried to dispel her concern though.

“She says it’s most likely nothing.”

“Or it could be something.”

Delilah could not argue with that, her own brain so quick to jump to the monster conclusion, clearly. She was thinking again about those strange noises her co-workers had told her about, and her immediate assumption that something supernatural was going on.

She glanced at the clock on the stove and realized it was already six. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs and opened the fridge again. “How was your day?” she asked conversationally, knowing it would lead to admitting her day’s failure, but eager to hear of Alex’s progress none-the-less. She looked over at the teen when she didn’t hear an answer and was greeted by a number one, angry disgusted teenager glare. “Hmm,” Delilah mused, “that good huh?”

Alex’s frown melted into sadness and quickly transitioned into indifference that broke Delilah’s heart to see. Sixteen years old and already a master at masking her feelings. Alex had grown up way too fast.

“What about you?” the girl asked her the dreaded question, picking her pencil up again, “You gonna see that guy?”

Delilah let out a sigh of defeat as she stared at a spot on the wall absently, remembering her afternoon awkwardness. Alex echoed the sound and Delilah returned to the moment, in the kitchen, with the suffering teen. Because if she was suffering, she figured Alex was as well. She pulled open the freezer door, repository of all foods labeled inedible junk, and her face lit up. She may not know how to help Alex with her troubles, but she knew exactly how to drown them.

“How ‘bout frozen pizza, ice cream and Dexter?” she threw out, peeking under the edge of the open freezer door.

Alex looked up at her, an incredulous look on her face. “Seriously? On a school night?”

“Hey!” Delilah answered pulling out the frozen pizza, “I ain’t your mom. I’ll take the heat when the sheriff gets home. You in or what?”

The smile that slowly spread on the girl’s face was worth breaking a thousand rules and she found herself returning the look, raising her eyebrows comically as she spun around in the kitchen, holding the frozen pizza box above her head, going from counter to oven to drawers like a master chef prepping a five-course meal. Alex joined in and their laughter bounced around the walls warmly, and Delilah almost felt sane again.


	10. Chapter 10

Marlene Baker pulled on the sliding door of the Dodge Caravan juggling two bags of groceries cradled in her right arm. She was tired and could feel it in her bones while she fumbled through her keys with arthritic fingers looking for the house key in the gathering gloom. It had been a long day at the office and she was looking forward to watching her show, if she could remember how to use the ridiculous contraption that recorded off her satellite feed. She missed the days of her VCR and cable television, but her son-in-law had insisted on installing the satellite dish because it was “better” and now she was stuck with more channels than she knew what to do with.

She held the key in her hand and shifted one of the bags to her left arm to distribute the weight more evenly and relieve the pain in her wrist. With a longing sigh, she mourned the loss of her once youthful body and headed for the front door of her small house with the red brick and the white trim. A green lawn speckled with apple blossom petals stretched to the street, looking like it was due for a trim. She would have to ask Jane to send over her husband again with the mower.

A breeze rustled through the trees across the street shaking loose some more pollen from the enormous pines. She turned to look, giving the insolent trees her best “evil old lady” glare as though it would be enough to keep the fine yellow powder off the minivan and windows. Something caught her eye beyond the dark line of trees and she put down the grocery bags and pushed her glasses back up her nose. She watched the woods with a suspicious glare wondering if the kids from three houses down were playing in there again.

“You kids go back home!” she called out to them, “It’s getting too dark to play in the woods.”

She waited a few moments, half expecting the ten-year-old twin boys to slink out from their hiding place looking sheepish. She pursed her lips when they didn’t and chided herself. “Goodness Marlee girl, you’re turning into a ranting little old granny.”

She turned around and bent down to pick up the groceries again. The breeze gave a little burst and ruffled her hair sending an uncomfortable chill down her neck. It also carried on it the smell of rotting garbage and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. Those Joneses down the street must have left the lid off again. They were going to attract critters for sure if they kept doing that.

She heard a banging sound coming from her driveway and she startled, clutching at her chest and dropping her groceries outright, an orange breaking free from one of the bags and rolling away back down the garden path. She looked around towards the sound, feeling stressed but there was nothing there. Nothing but her minivan parked where she always parked it at the top of the driveway. Slowly her heart went back to beating normally and she noticed the stray orange and then the fallen groceries. “Marlee, you silly old goose! Pro’ly broke all the eggs too,” she mumbled to herself as she walked back down the path towards the orange, feeling uneasy.

She bent down slowly, not wanting to accidentally chink her back, and she reached for the runaway citrus. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the minivan rock at the same as another loud bang reached her ears. Did someone just run into her van? she thought outraged. “You little turds better not have dented my van!” she called out as she approached. She made it to the other side of her van in the darkness cast by the shadow of the vehicle in the driveway light. There was no one there, but the back sliding door had a huge dent in the side like she had been broadsided by another vehicle. “What the hell?” she muttered.

She lay her hand against the now dented siding then looked around again for the neighbour’s kids, so she could skin them alive. The van rocked on its wheels again and she startled, dropping the runaway orange she had picked up before and no longer confident in her conclusion that the neighbour’s kids were playing tricks on her. She carefully made her way around the parked van again, keeping her right hand on the cooling metal of the hood. She couldn’t see on the other side of the car. She felt fear flooding her system as she wondered what could possibly do this. Maybe it was a wild animal playing bumper cars with her van, did deer get rabies? She slowly inched around, not wanting to startle whatever she could feel was concealed just on the other side of the vehicle.

Breathing in sharply and holding it, she leaned forward quickly and peered around the front of the van, along its length. There was nothing there. She moved closer to the siding, to see if maybe whatever it was had left another large dent on this side, but there was nothing. The hairs raised on her forearm suddenly just as she felt a hard body knock into her from behind, pushing her against the side of the van and disappearing again just as quickly. Marlene fell to her knees painfully on the driveway asphalt but turned herself over to fend off the next attack.

The early evening was dark and as peaceful as before, the nightmare unfolding around her completely incongruous with the calm rustling of the pines as she stared around wide-eyed, unable to see with her glasses fallen off her face. The world around her was a blur and completely quiet as she leaned back against the van door looking around wildly. Then suddenly, something yanked her leg and she fell to her back with a shriek, hitting her head. She could feel the cold clammy claws close around her leg and she dared to look down the length of her body. All she saw were the long, sharp teeth bare inches from her face and she screamed again before it grabbed her, slamming her against the ground making the world around her black.


	11. Chapter 11

The front door opened, startling Delilah out of her dazed state, fixing the television with a blank stare. Alex had gone to bed after a few episodes of Dexter; somehow the bloody content of the show was surprisingly comforting to both of them. Maybe the main character’s successful attempts at blending into society while pursuing his righteous murder spree to assuage his bloodlust appealed to both of their struggles with everyday life reintegration. For whatever reason, they both really enjoyed the show. Alex had wished her goodnight and disappeared into her room, but Delilah had found herself unable to do the same.

Alex had told her, while they had been preparing for dinner, about Iris and the cafeteria and Delilah had recounted, in return, her misadventure with Andrew. Then, they had settled in front the TV and gorged on junk food and drama to lick their psychological wounds.

It was going on midnight, now though, she realized, glancing at the time on the cable box, and Jody was only just coming home? Delilah put down her miraculously unspilled tumbler of whiskey on the small table beside her and leaned forward, catching the sheriff’s questioning eye as she closed the door behind her and started yanking out her uniform shirt and kicking off her boots.

“Alex gone to bed?” she asked softly.

“Yeah, couple hours ago.”

Jody nodded her head to acknowledge her answer and then turned away, heading down the hallway towards the bedrooms, unclipping her utility belt.

Delilah sat back on the couch, knowing she had about a half an hour while Jody decompressed from work: taking a shower and changing into her PJs.

“Do you trust me?” the cheesy, generic pretty-boy-made-out-to-look-like-Joe-Shmo-and-failing-miserably said to the wide-eyed, innocent wanna-slap-some-sense-into-her starlet on the television and Delilah reached for the remote like there was a fire and it was the extinguisher and hit the power button. The dark television reflected her face and she was met once again with the picture of the girl in the mirror that morning: hollow eyes, hollow cheeks and hollow soul.

She reached for her whiskey again, her mind continuing to ignore her plea to stop the memories from hounding her and drifting back to her time with Dean Winchester.

_“Do you trust me?” he had asked her breathlessly as he pressed her into the wall with his naked body._

_“Can I trust you?” Delilah remembered asking him, scared of letting him in. Trust required a bond and although she had had no trouble trusting him in a fight, trusting him to treat her body, and potentially, her heart with the care it needed was a whole different thing._

In the end, she had let him in. She had given him everything, her trust, her love, her passion burning so deeply just for him, and look where it had left her. She glanced again at the ghost in the television and she felt the tears begin to form, her eyes swimming before she could choke them back with the whiskey in her glass.

“You’re a good hunter,” Sam Winchester told her from the bottom of her glass and she put it back down quickly on the end table. So what? she wanted to scream at the long-haired memory. What use was being good at something that had ruined her life? She wiped away the lone tear that had made it past her unblinking eyelids, feeling all the more guilty about having abandoned the younger brother when she had forsworn their lifestyle. He had been the one true friend she’d ever had as an adult, and she had left him alone just because she couldn’t be around his brother anymore. His absence had left a hole in her heart the same as Dean.

Jody made her way back down the hallway, and though she said nothing as she passed her sitting on the couch, her eyes darted to the empty glass and the nearly empty bottle beside her on the end table. She disappeared into the kitchen a moment and came back with a slice of pizza that had been left over from dinner. She plopped herself down into her recliner facing the hallway towards the rooms, and sighed.

“Any news on the missing girl?” Delilah asked as she watched her bite into the pizza, holding one hand under it to catch whatever toppings might fall.

Jody sat back, chewing thoughtfully not looking at anything in particular. “Girl is definitely missing. And she’s not alone. That boy she was last seen with, also hasn’t been seen by anybody all day. I talked to their families and friends and no one really seems all that worried, except the girl who came in this afternoon. They mostly think the two just snuck off for some alone time in the woods and will pop up any minute now.”

Delilah knew that look in Jody’s eyes, “You’re not convinced.”

Jody shrugged and took another bite of pizza. Delilah considered this for a moment, Tanya’s mention of the cries she had heard coming back to the forefront of her mind and shunting aside everything else. “Did you go check out where they were last seen?”

“I went real quick with a few deputies, but it was already too dark to see anything much with flashlights. I didn’t see any obvious trace of a struggle, but if all they did was wander off the path, there wouldn’t be those kinds of signs anyways. I’m going back up there first thing tomorrow morning, gonna bring a couple dogs too.”

“Do you want company? I could go with you.”

“Oh honey, it’s okay. I’ve already called in a few deputies and forensics to meet me there. If you’re there it’ll just draw too many questions.”

Delilah nodded her head a moment, the wheels turning as she once again felt the pull to figure out what was going on in Sioux Falls. She bit her lip still unsure whether she wanted to bring up the noises her colleagues had heard.

“Did you hear any reports of coyotes roaming loose?”

Jody paused in the middle of taking another bite of pizza and looked up at Delilah frowning. “Coyotes?”

“Yeah, um, I dunno. A couple of the ladies from my department were talking today about hearing strange noises in the past few days… Um, probably nothing though,” Delilah finished lamely, scratching the back of her head awkwardly.

Jody bit into the pizza with another shrug, “At this point, all clues suggest nothing more than a couple consenting adults blowing off some steam.

Delilah swallowed hard, memories crowding her again, this time she was staring at Sam’s sweat soaked t-shirt, “You and I have very different ways of blowing off steam,” she had told him.

“I guess so…”

Her mind jumped to one of the many post hunt fuckings she and Dean had engaged in; feeling the familiar warmth of his hands and body like he was gently caressing her right there on the couch. She felt again the weight of his arm slung over her waist as he held her close in his bed at the bunker and suddenly she was fighting tears again, remembering his last words to her as they drifted up from a deep well inside, “You’re nothing to me but an easy fuck, Delilah. That’s all you ever were.”

Jody moved from the recliner to the empty spot on the sofa beside her. “Honey, is everything okay?”

Delilah wiped at her tears furiously before answering, “Yeah, always.”

The sheriff wasn’t fooled though, “Is this about Dean?” she coaxed gently, putting her arm around Delilah’s shoulders.

Delilah didn’t say anything, images just swirling in her head: Dean being sweet followed by his murderous stares, his fists flying at her, then his lips kissing her tenderly, and beyond it all a deep yearning for him, regardless.

“I just miss him so much, Jody,” she whispered her confession, “I can’t help it. Even though he never… I just can’t…” she trailed off and Jody pulled her into her arms, holding her close. “I feel like a part of me is just… gone.”

The tears slipped down her cheeks silently and Jody rocked her slowly. “I know, sweetie,” she said, “It will get better. I promise.”

Delilah cried in Jody’s comforting embrace, desperately needing to believe that what she said was possible. There had to be hope somewhere.


	12. Chapter 12

When Matt came to, the light was gone. He was back to languishing in darkness and despair. His ankle was throbbing dully as was his head and his tongue felt swollen in his dry mouth. He didn’t even have anything left in him to form tears. He just lay in the darkness, his mind a complete blank. He had stopped trying to figure out how to get out, he had stopped hoping he would be rescued, he had stopped wondering how long he had been there – none of it mattered. He was going to die and end up as just another pile of bones.

A strange new sound reached his ears, loud in the previous silence. A strange scratching sound, like rustling leaves. He raised himself up on his elbows turning his head trying to identify where it was coming from. The echoes in the cavern made it difficult to pin point the direction of the sound, but after listening a few moments, he was certain that it, whatever it was, was getting louder. Which meant it was getting closer.

“Hey!” Matt yelled, scrambling to his feet in the dark, “Hey! I’m down here! Help me!”

The noise stopped and Matt strained his ear to listen. He was not giving up though, convinced that whoever was up there would help him. He raised his voice, ready to scream himself hoarse if need be.

“Help me! Get me out of here! Please!”

He stopped again, his ears picking up a new sound, more distinct. He could hear someone talking, he was sure of it. He leaned forward against the wall in the dark and tried to make out the words.

“What is this? Where am I?” said the voice, a woman’s voice, he figured.

“Hey!” he started yelling again, over and over, trying to get her to acknowledge him.

“No!” she said, louder and Matt fell silent listening, “Get away from me!” she screamed.

Apprehension filled him as he leaned against the damp stone listening to the woman’s pleas. She was repeating “no” over and over as an image swam up in his mind of horror movie victims begging for their lives. The cave suddenly echoed with her screams, an explosion of sound assaulting his straining ears. Her fear and pain bounced around the cavern walls deafeningly and Matt slammed his hands over his ears and crumpled into a ball, squeezing his eyes shut. “Oh God!” he repeated under his breath over and over unable to think of anything else as the woman’s pleas for her life bounced around him. He prayed it would stop as he tried to make himself as small as possible as though it would allow him to escape the nightmare.

And then, there was silence and it was a thousand times worse than the screaming had been. Into the void of sound left by the woman’s cut off screams, came a quieter noise, something Matt could not identify immediately. He pulled his hands away from his head and turned towards it, unable to stop himself from analyzing it. The quiet, wet, squishing sound was both alien and familiar to Matt. He frowned trying to find a framework in his mind to connect it to. Matt heard a popping, snapping sound and suddenly his brain made the connection and threw at him the memory of so many Thanksgivings and Christmases… of the popping wet sound of a leg being torn from the turkey and he gagged, reeling from the realization.

With the sound of the first hollow, porous bone hitting the floor of the cavern where he was trapped Matt doubled over and retched, his empty stomach churning up gastric acid and spewing it from his mouth, filling his nose with the acrid smell triggering more gagging. There was nothing to distract him from those terrible, wet, chewing sounds, the memory of the woman’s screams still echoing in his ears as he tried to make himself as small as possible in his stone prison. His mind was overwhelmed by the vivid preview he now had of his own impending demise at the hands of whatever monster was up there, casually tossing bones picked clean into his crypt.


	13. Chapter 13

She startled awake, sitting straight up while her heart beat out of her chest and sweat soaked her top. Disjointed images flashed, left-overs of her restless dreaming, but she couldn’t make any sense out of them. She groaned, pushing the tangled blankets off her legs and turning to put her feet on the ground in a repeat performance of the past four weeks. She finally steadied her breathing and she considered pushing herself off the couch and heading down to the washroom to shower and get started on another day that would undoubtedly yield the same results as every other day since she had arrived in Sioux Falls. She failed to find even a shred of enthusiasm for it and seriously contemplated curling back up on the couch and calling in sick.

She didn’t though, and swung to her feet, like she managed to do every morning, and dragged her ass down the hall to the washroom to run the hot water that would hopefully chase away the grogginess and allow her to once again look and pretend to feel human.

Alex seemed to be in the exact same state of mind as her as she walked into the kitchen. The girl was sitting at the breakfast counter, plugging away at her homework and eating a bowl of cereal. She wasn’t even ribbing Jody this morning; clearly not in a teasing mood. Delilah poured herself a coffee and drank it down in silence, contemplating the day ahead.

The Jody Whirlwind came rushing into the kitchen and suddenly it was go time: Alex headed out the door to take the bus and Jody and her got into the truck to head in to work. She must have been preoccupied because Jody didn’t say a word on the drive in and Delilah was more than a little relieved that she had that much more time to compose herself. Fake it ‘till you make it, Delilah told herself as she settled in at her desk having gotten through the minefield of morning greetings with her coworkers. Just another day of mind numbing normality. If all these people around her could do it, with smiles on their faces, then damnit, so could she.


	14. Chapter 14

Alex sat in Lit. class again feeling frustrated as she doodled absently in her sketchbook. She had realized earlier, while she was packing her books for her morning classes, that she couldn’t find her notebook for English, she must have forgotten it the day before in her rush to escape the classroom. She had hoped, for a minute, that maybe it would still be where she had left it, but when she had gotten there a few minutes before, it was to find the desk devoid of her notes. They had a quiz coming up and without them, she was sure to fail it. She sat, angry and frustrated, her doodles turning to bold, dark lines she was only half paying attention to while the classroom filled up around her, the volume increasing steadily and pounding its way into her head. Certain words pierced through her filter and nudged at her attention. Hiking, missing, woods… Alex raised her head a little, giving her attention to the chatter as her hand continued to doodle absently on its own.

“They still didn’t find them. Kara’s totes worried,” Annabeth was saying, while she filed her perfect nails.

“Yeah, she told me her sister never came home from her hike. It’s not like you can get lost on those trails, like seriously?” added Migold, another of the doll faced girls sitting in the seat behind Annabeth and leaning against the wall, turning her olive-skinned face into the faint sunlight.

“Well, I heard,” chimed in Shawn, with a mischievous look in his eyes, “that they snuck off… off the trail… if ya know what I mean.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively to the hooting of Henry who was sitting backwards on his chair, legs on either side of the backrest.

“Yeah, Kara says her sister isn’t that kind of girl, but you know who she was with right?” Deirdra threw in with a quirk of her lips. “Matt Paulsen, quarterback for the Razorbacks. And you don’t get Matt’s attention by being the ‘good little girl’.”

The group burst into peels of laughter and Alex couldn’t help the knot of worry that was forming in her stomach. Somehow, she couldn’t shake the growing concern that maybe vampires were involved. She tried to suppress the idea that her old family had found her, reminding herself once more that they were all dead.

She felt bad for Kara and her family though she didn’t know them particularly well. Kara was in her Math class and had her own small group of friends. She always seemed nice though: normal, undamaged. It upset Alex a little to think that her sister going missing could be the kind of thing that would taint a girl like her, being touched by darkness. She found herself hoping Jody would find them safe and sound.

“Do the cops know what happened? Do they have any leads?”

Alex looked up to see who had spoken, it wasn’t one of the dolls, the conversation bringing in some of the other teens. It was a usually quiet and reserved brunette girl she had a few classes with but whose name she hadn’t picked up on yet who had asked. Henry turned to answer her.

“Leads? CSI much? You’re so lame.”

“No, they don’t have any leads,” answered Annabeth derisively, making air quotations with her fingers. “The cops have been completely useless so far, big surprise there. They say she must’ve run away or something.”

Alex flinched, resisting the urge to speak up for Jody, feeling herself become defensive of her guardian. She knew Jody ran a tight outfit, if they told the family there were no clues, then there weren’t. But, that didn’t mean anything and Alex knew that. How many people did she pull away from their families without a trace? How many families were still searching for their loved ones? The ones she had brought to their deaths. The memory of large brown eyes and golden hair flickered in her mind and she banished it back to where it had come from with a wince.

“That’s a bit… morbid and disturbing,” said a high, clear voice right beside her. Alex turned her head sharply to the right to find Iris standing beside her and looking down at her desk. Alex looked down at her sketchbook and found that she had absently sketched vampire fangs dripping in something dark, black shadows all around. She slammed her sketchbook shut quickly, her eyes wide as she avoided looking to where Iris was standing, undoubtedly finding her even more strange, maybe even sick and disgusting. She pulled the collar of her shirt closer to her ears, nervously hiding the scar tissue on her neck. She heard the chair beside her being pulled back with a scrape and turned her head to see Iris sitting down in the seat next to her, crossing her long bare legs under the desk. Her bleached hair was falling almost straight today, the strands clumping in places from the overly bleached hair, the tips longer in the front and progressively shorter in the back, her bangs tied back with a bobby pin. Iris glanced over at Alex with her black-lined eyes, making her turn away again anxiously. Alex was determined not to look to that side of the room for the rest of the class. Iris probably already thought she was a freak, didn’t need her to think she was perving out on her, too.

Mr. Salerno walked into the classroom, calling out a cheery greeting and inviting the students to take their seats. There was a general ruckus as chairs were moved and teens sat reluctantly, putting their discussions on hold until lunch. Alex picked up her sketchbook and was tucking it away in her bag when something landed on her desk, knocking into her hand. She was startled when she recognized her English notebook. She glanced to the side, forgetting in her surprise that she had told herself she would not look that way anymore. Iris was sitting staring straight ahead at the teacher, her elbows on her desk, her chin resting in one of her palms.

Alex pulled her notebook towards herself, opening it to the last page she had started writing on. There was a note scribbled diagonally at the bottom of the page where she had stopped her notes the previous day. It said “Bleachers, north soccer field, 12:15” in a loopy handwriting that did not match her untidy scribbles in the least. She stared at the note wide-eyed, her brain not quite processing that it was aimed at her, feeling like maybe it was intended for someone else, even if it was written in her notebook.

She looked over to Iris again, frowning uncertainly. This time, Iris was looking right at her, her chin on her clasped hands. She made sure Alex wasn’t going to look away again and slowly raised her eyebrows, nodding towards the note. Alex nodded, completely certain now and slightly dumbfounded that the note was not, in fact, a mistake. The blonde looked at her a little longer then turned back towards the lesson, Alex doing the same. She had a hard time paying attention to the lecture though as she felt the slight tremor of budding, tentative joy glowing faintly inside.


	15. Chapter 15

Delilah hit the return key on her keyboard and sat back, adding the completed paper to her finished pile. She glanced back to the teetering stack of forms she had yet to enter into the system and she huffed through her nose, bored and discouraged. Someone had dropped the stack on her desk earlier, claiming that it was top priority because the forms had been piling up and he just couldn’t get to it right away. Delilah had frowned, glancing at the dates on these urgent forms and realized that some of them were from a couple months before. So he was getting pressure from above to file his shit and instead of doing it himself, he was foisting it onto her. What the hell was he doing all day if he couldn’t get through simple data entry? She had let him leave without making a comment though, and had started in on the pile. A few hours into the tedious papers and she was bored out of her brain. She decided that she could stretch her legs by filing the paperwork she had already gotten through and stood up, rolling back her shoulders to loosen the knots.

She grabbed the ready-for-filing pile and made her way along the row of cubicles – co-workers steadily plucking away at their work – towards the filing room. As she walked, she passed the cut-off aisle between the billing department cubicles and some of the other departments like public works and parks and recreation, where Andrew worked. The image of Andrew, his eyebrows pulling together in slight consternation as she rushed to get away from him the day before, floated back into her consciousness, and she felt ashamed of her behaviour. As she opened the filing cabinet drawer, she mused about maybe asking him out, today.

She was instantly filled with dread, just like the day before, and she tried to shake it away as she obstinately continued to think about it. She bit at her lower lip as she put away each file, wondering what kind of outing she should suggest. She imagined the simplest thing would be to go for drinks, but what if they had nothing to discuss and they ended up just sitting there not talking? No, they needed to do something.

Maybe a movie? What was playing these days? she wondered. A movie might be a good way to ease into it…. They could always go for a coffee afterwards if the silent movie watching wasn’t too awkward.  
She could always see if he wanted to play pool, that had always worked out well for her in college. Drinks, conversation, potential for proximity if it felt like it was going that way. A memory of Sam hustling those kids in Iowa, Delilah pressing herself against him as a distraction, drifted to the forefront of her mind and she felt the yearning for his easy friendship. Things were always so simple with Sam, especially with the cursed mirror memories faded to nothing more than a strange multi-sensorial movie. What would he say about this endeavour of hers? “I think you should go,” Sam told her, sitting beside her on the bed popping gummy bears in his mouth.

With a sigh, Delilah pushed the drawer in the filing cabinet closed and with a half-hearted nod she turned to head to Andrew’s cubicle. Fake it ‘til you make it, she thought again. She suddenly stopped in her tracks though as memories of another pool hustle emerged. “Here’s looking at you, kid,” Dean said in his deep voice, holding her close as he bent down to kiss her. Her pulse quickened, and her heart started trying to beat out of her chest and she looked around quickly for a place to hide before the threatening waterworks started.

As she turned around, she was surprised to see Jody heading down towards her in her light brown sheriff’s uniform. What a strange sight to see the sheriff in these offices. She sometimes had business with the mayor and his various delegates, but they were on the next floor up, not here with the departmental cronies. Her confusion was kicked into high gear when she felt someone’s hand on her arm. She turned to look and it was Andrew, trying to get her attention. Somehow she had managed to stop right in front of his cubicle.

“Delilah?” he asked her, “Is everything alright?”

“Um, yeah,” she answered distractedly as Jody joined them.

“Hey,” Jody said in greeting, she was trying to sound nonchalant, even throwing in a smile towards Andrew, but Delilah’s senses were suddenly on high alert. She couldn’t think of a reason why Jody would come up to see her in the middle of the work day. Her curiosity increased further as Jody asked if she could talk to her privately, down at the station.

Andrew laughed a little, rubbing the back of his head, “What kind of trouble did you get yourself into?” he asked her, trying to sound casual but clearly uncomfortable.

Delilah was torn. She had a feeling this had something to do with those missing hikers, and she couldn’t help the exhilaration suddenly coursing through her. Maybe Jody had found something at the scene and wanted her opinion. But why would she, unless it was related to something, no quite normal… if that was the case, she would be diving back, head first, into the wacky world of weird.

Delilah turned back towards Andrew and everything he had come to represent as a token of what was normal life, and Delilah felt torn between the two: go with Jody and be liminal forever, or stay with Andrew and maybe have a shot at what she had been working so hard to get.

Seeing her hesitation, Jody spoke up, “But, if you’re busy, it’s okay.”

Delilah turned back to glance at Andrew and even as she felt the pull of excitement guiding her towards Jody, she clung to her resolution to be a full member of society, and going on a date with this man was a part of that. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Jody turn around and head back out of the offices without a glance. Delilah refocused on Andrew.  
“Andrew,” she said, drawing his attention back to her, “I know I kinda took my time getting back to you and all, but if you’re still interested, maybe we could go for drinks later this week?”

“Yeah,” he said, Jody’s intrusion clearly swept from his mind as a goofy grin plastered itself to his face, “That’d be great.”

“Friday?”

“That’s perfect.”

“Alright then,” Delilah couldn’t help smiling, proud of her efforts. She turned away from him and headed towards her cubicle. She stood in the opening feeling giddy suddenly and stared at the pile of papers absently. She considered the complete and total boredom of her work, and her utter lack of enthusiasm for it, especially in contrast to the tingling running through her at the prospect of going out on a date. Delilah frowned, that didn’t seem right. She was not feeling the responding flare of excitement from thinking about Andrew. Tentatively she turned her thoughts to the sheriff’s visit and her heart fluttered excitedly in her chest. Would it be so bad if she took a few minutes to go see what Jody wanted to talk to her about? Her body responded with a surge of excitement.

She stood there a moment longer, then, she grabbed her jean jacket from the back of her chair, slung her messenger bag across her shoulders and made her way out of the office and to the stairs, heading down to the sheriff’s station, feeling like a kid playing hooky from school.

She pushed open the glass door to the sheriff’s department and reflexively glanced at the greeting desk, but Jim wasn’t there. The deputy on duty today was Markle and she didn’t know her well enough to tease her. After a quick exchange, punctuated by staticky communications coming in through the dispatch radio, Delilah was told that Jody was in the conference room, so she headed that way.  
The place seemed unusually empty, the offices all but deserted. Had they all been mobilized to find the missing hikers? What in the world did Jody find at the scene?

Delilah stepped through the open door to the conference room, quickly spotting Jody sitting on the corner of the large table, facing the whiteboard. “Hey!” she called out, Jody returning the greeting and waving her over. She walked up to her, glancing quickly through the window, conscious that this is not the kind of thing the sheriff should be showing a civilian, but there was no one in the bull pen to see them, and Deputy Markle was too busy with dispatch to really care.

“What’s up? Still no news on the missing hikers?”

“Went out there again this morning,” she started, pointing to the detailed map of the trails criss crossing through the state park east of Sioux Falls affixed to the white board with magnets. There was a yellow dot on one of the marked trails and a red dot a little ways further off to the side. “That’s the spot on the trail where the girl said she parted ways with her friends.” Jody pointed to the yellow dot.  
Delilah moved closer. “What’s the red dot then?”

“Red dot, is a little clearing just off the main path. I think our hikers might have gone there to… you know.”

Delilah raised her eyebrows and looked back at the dot on the map. “I guess if rolling around in poison ivy is your thing… all the more power to them!”

“I don’t think they left the clearing, Delilah… At least, not by themselves.”

Delilah turned to look at Jody, her face set in a frown. “Did you find anything?”

“The dogs found a shoe. But nothing else. And they didn’t pick up on a trail either. It’s like… they were there, and then not.”

“And we’re sure the shoe belonged to one of the hikers.”

“Look, my gut is telling me there’s something wrong with this.”

Delilah thought about this a moment, continuing to stare at the dots on the map. “What about the coyote reports. Could animals have done this?”

“It’s not unheard of that animals come out of the woods and take chunks out of hikers, especially now, since they’re out of hibernation and looking to mate, they go a little crazy… but animal attacks leave traces, trails, something to follow. We didn’t even find any blood at the scene. At least not obvious blood. Forensics is working on the samples we brought back.”

Delilah kept staring at the map of Good Earth State Park. It covered the entire area south-east of Sioux Falls and was heavily forested. If these woods looked anything like those around Jody’s cabin, that was some thick woodland to get lost in. Something flashed in her brain thinking about the woods. She tried to visualize Sioux Falls and the way it seemed to pop out of the forests that surround it and her mind drifted to where her coworkers had reported hearing the strange sounds. Were both those neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Sioux Falls? Or were they urban? If they were both close to the tree line, then it’s possible that whatever this was was using the woods for cover, but she couldn’t be sure without seeing a map. And the sheer distance this thing would need to cover to be heard both on the eastern and western outskirts of the city was mind boggling

Jody pulled her from her reflections, “Look. Believe me, I don’t want you to get all wrapped up in this. I know you’re trying to put it all behind you, but my gut tells me something isn’t right here, and I’d sure appreciate another pair of eyes that knows about the wackadoo stuff out there.”

“You mean supernatural crap,” Delilah said, annoyed at herself that she simply could not suppress the excitement.

“I get it if you prefer to stay out of it. And I really don’t mean to drag you into this, but if we’re dealing with something like that, we need to find it ASAP. Before anyone else goes missing.

“It’s alright, I’m good with this, really. But there’s not much here for me to go on.”

“Forensics should be done with the clearing by now. If you want, I’m thinking we can head on out there. Maybe you’ll see something we missed.”

“I suppose it’s worth a try,” Delilah said with a sigh, turning back to look at the map again and the two little dots in the sea of forest. “Guess I should go tell the boss I’m leaving for the afternoon.”

Delilah’s mind flashed back to sitting in her cubicle in Topeka, Dean in full FBI garb coming in and flashing his badge.

_“Excuse me, ma’am. Official F.B.I. business. I need you to come with me, now.”_

Delilah shook it away and sighed, she had so hoped she would be keeping this job longer than a month.


	16. Chapter 16

Alex hugged her shirt to herself, pulling the collar close to her neck against the cool breeze coming down the soccer field. The sun was hiding behind a thick canopy of clouds and the May air was much chillier than it had been in the past few days. She shivered waiting for Iris to appear as the minutes slowly slipped forward. She kept glancing at her phone in her hand as the numbers reached and then passed the designated time. Alex looked around the deserted field and back towards the school, but Iris was nowhere to be found. She glanced down at her sneakers, disappointed and half-convinced that the whole thing had been a huge misunderstanding, doubt snuffing out the earlier warm glow.

She should leave, she told herself, fidgeting with her shirt cuffs, having rolled down the sleeves to try and keep the heat from leaving her body. She hugged her arms around herself, leaning her elbows on her knees, her feet propped up on the bench on the bleacher level below hers. She was such a fool. Why on Earth would Iris want to meet with her? She was nothing but a freak and a murderer, she did not deserve people in her life. She was dangerous and should be left on her own. She had earned this empty, lonely life. This was her penance. A girl’s smile flashed in her head, innocent and trusting, and Alex dropped her head in her sleeve-covered hands wincing from the pain of the memory.

“Hey!” She heard Iris’s clear voice almost at the same time as she heard the crunch of gravel under the girl’s usual bright blue Converse high tops.

Alex snapped her head up and watched, wide-eyed, as the blonde climbed the bleachers to where Alex was sitting and sat down beside her, plopping her soft canvas sling bag down beside her. She foraged through it for a moment then pulled out a half empty pack of cigarettes. She took one out and stuck the filter in her mouth glancing over at Alex. She tilted the pack towards her, offering her one, and Alex shook her head side-to-side. Iris shrugged and put the pack away and foraged through her bag again, pulling out a lighter this time. She flicked the stone close to the tip of the cigarette, cupping the tentative flame with her hand to protect it from the breeze.

“Fuck, it’s cold as tits today. What the hell? I thought it was supposed to be spring,” she said, hugging her bare arms and joggling her bare legs.

Alex’s brain was working double time, trying to remember how to interact with people. What was she supposed to say? She pulled her shirt collar close again, afraid the wind would blow the fabric away and reveal her shame.

_“It’s so cold today. I’m freezing,” the girl with the hair like spun gold said as she plopped down beside her in the bar._

_Alex looked around, realizing the girl was talking to her. She quickly took in her appearance: no coat, just a sweater, torn jeans, a ratty purse and worn sneakers, smeared eyeliner – the girl’s outfit was screaming runaway. “Yeah, can’t wait for spring to get here. I’ve had about enough of the cold weather. You been on the road long?”_

Alex looked down at her shoes, “Yeah, can’t wait for spring to get its ass into gear. Tired of the cold.” Out of the corner of her eye she could see Iris looking at her and she looked away again.

“So, what’s your story?”

“My… what? I don’t have a story,” Alex answered quickly, trying to keep the sudden panic out of her voice. She wasn’t ready to talk about this stuff… how could she?

Iris took a drag of her cigarette and slowly blew the smoke out into the cool air. “You appear out of the blue a month ago, you don’t talk to anyone. All you ever do is draw in that book… Sick drawings, by the way, you’re really good.” Iris took another pull of her cigarette and watched Alex, who had pulled her collar close again and was doing her best to disappear, realizing that Iris had been watching her without her knowing. She wasn’t sure she liked it. “So, what is it?” the blonde continued, looking out over the field again, “Abusive asshole dad? Drugs? A whole family of screw ups? What?”

Alex stared ahead of her blankly, thrown headlong into the memory she had been trying to ignore.

_“Stupidest thing I ever did… followed that jerk all the way out here, and he leaves me in the middle of nowhere,” the girl with the golden hair told her as they walked along the road._

_“That was a dick move. Can’t you just go home?” Alex asked her, fishing for information._

_“They don’t want to see me there. Mom thinks I’m trash. A dropout and a filthy whore to boot.”_

_“That’s rough.”_

_They walked on, the girl venting two weeks’ worth of frustrations and love-sick disdain for the guy who had abandoned her. “You now, it wasn’t even about sex. He freed me,” she finished, a note of awe in her voice._

_“Freed you?” Alex asked her, the growing nagging inside her head making her perk her ears and listen._

_“Yeah. I was dying, you know? In that house. With all their expectations. Dad’s an engineer, you know? So, of course, I gotta be one too. Screw what I want, forget that I’m an individual, not a damned clone! That’s what he is, so that’s what I’m going to become.”_

_Alex didn’t say anything, her brain suddenly in overdrive, fragments and feelings bouncing around looking for a way to form a coherent thought… forced to become something… that’s what he is… free…_

_“Anyways, thanks…” the girl trailed off and Alex looked up. She was looking at her expectantly with her big brown eyes and Alex realized what she was waiting for._

_“Alexis,” she answered without thinking._

_“I love that name!” the girl exclaimed, an uncanny bubbliness just bursting out of her, her good humour undampened by the fact that she was miles away from her family and home, walking in the dark with a stranger. Alex frowned as the girl went on, “I’m Janice, by the way. I know… don’t say it, it’s horrible, I know. Urgh and everyone just calls me Jan, as if it’s any better, but seriously… Jan?”_

_“You could always change it,” Alex said, frowning, faded impressions pushing at her subconscious._

_“Maybe I will! Anyways, thanks, Alexis. I just really need a place to stay the night. And tomorrow I’ll be out of your hair. I promise.”_

_“Yeah… don’t worry about it.” Alex glanced up and saw the flickering porch light in the distance. The wind blew down the barren late winter fields that surrounded the abandoned farmhouse her family was squatting in. She swallowed down her worries, glancing again at the girl. Something about her was tugging at Alex’s consciousness. She was just another runaway… No one would miss her… Should she tell her to run?_

_“You sure your mom’s gonna be okay with me staying the night?” Janice asked._

_Alex stopped in her tracks, feeling her heart rate increase. She looked at the girl with the hair like gold, her big brown eyes staring back at her so trusting and thankful. She glanced again at the porch light, barely a few yards away, now. She bit her lower lip, torn about what to do. Was she really bringing this girl home? She was barely older than her._

_Alex reached out and grabbed her hand, “Listen, Janice… You need to go.”_

_The girl’s face fell, her eyes wide and sad with betrayal. “What? Why?”_

_“Yeah, Alex… Why?” Out of the darkness, Alex saw her brother Dale materialize like he had been nothing more than shadow, his floppy brown hair falling in his eyes. “Mama will be delighted we have a guest.”_

_He draped his arm over Janice’s shoulders casually and smiled at her. She smiled back and looked back at Alex with a relieved grin._

“You know, I can get you some duct tape if you’re afraid your shirt’s gonna fly away.”

Janice’s echoing screams faded away again as Iris pulled her back to the present. She was clutching her shirt again, holding the collar tightly against her neck.

“I’m just cold,” Alex answered, quietly.

Iris kept her eyes on Alex a little longer, then she took a last drag at her cigarette and crushed the butt on the metal bleacher bench before flicking it away.

“I started cutting when I was twelve,” Iris said, her voice toneless like she was talking about something that didn’t matter in the least. Alex turned her head towards her and watched as the blonde lifted her shirt to reveal her abdomen. She ran her left hand along her middle like she was petting the skin from her navel to her side. She pulled her hand away and Alex could see the neat thin white lines that were spaced almost perfectly. She counted five of them. “If you asked me then, why… I woulda told you that I didn’t know, or that I was bored. I realized though, that I was unhappy. People say I’m nuts because my family is as perfectly normal as they come… I’m not abused, not sick. My parents love me… or at least a version of me. We’re not rich, but we have money. No, all through grade school, my life, my family, was perfect. But, it wasn’t me. I didn’t feel like me. I was trapped in their perfection. I made these lines as perfectly as I could. Because I had to be perfect.” Alex was hypnotized listening to Iris talk. “But, I’m not perfect. So, I stopped trying to be. Now, this is a reminder that I can only be me… flaws and all.”

Alex turned away, pondering what Iris had said while she pulled her shirt back down. Flaws and all. That was all good and well, but Iris wasn’t a murderer… some things just couldn’t be forgotten… or understood. What did Iris know of vampires and monsters?

“It’s cool, you know,” the blonde jumped in again, “I get it. I couldn’t really talk about this stuff, not for years. Everyone has their baggage… and I respect that.”

Iris leaned back against the metal bench behind them and stretched out her legs, crossing them at the ankles like she was laying back on a beach towel in the warm sun, as opposed to against a metal bleacher on a cold windy day. Alex felt the relief slowly relax her. Iris did not demand that she explain herself; she was okay with Alex keeping her secret, at least a while longer. They sat quietly, in companionable silence while Alex stared off across the field. It was not uncomfortable, she didn’t feel like she had to talk about anything, just not being alone felt so amazing. She felt that little glow warm her up again and she felt her mouth tugging into a shy smile.

“You want to chill later?” Iris suddenly asked, breaking the easy silence. “We’re gathering at Lukas’s house after school… you should totally come hang out.” Maybe the blonde saw something in her eyes because she glanced at Alex and quickly added, “Don’t worry, they’re cool. You’ll see.”

Alex thought about the prospect of being around Iris’s friends. This was so more than she was ready for. She barely got through talking with Iris and now she would have to do it again? With a bunch of people?

“Um,” she said hesitatingly, “I’m gonna have to ask Jody first.”

“Oh, well yeah. Really though… I know, around school, they like to talk shit about them, but Lukas and Trevor are good people.” Iris sat up suddenly and grabbed her canvas bag, slinging it onto her right shoulder before standing up and walking down the bleachers. “Do what you gotta do, but if you do decide to come hang with us, meet me by the caf door after the bell.”

She did not wait for Alex’s confirmation, rather she walked off the way she had appeared, leaving Alex to shiver on the cold bench, contemplating what she would do.


	17. Chapter 17

The drive out to the trails had been very quiet, Jody was clearly preoccupied as she stared straight out the truck window. Delilah had been worried that they would need to hike the trails for a bit and she did not have appropriate footwear for that kind of thing. She was relieved when the sheriff drove right up the larger trail, the truck’s wheels bouncing them through the mucky terrain without a problem. It was only as they got close to a fork, lined with a couple police cruisers that they had to get out and walk.

“Won’t they think it’s strange that you’re bringing your house guest with you to a potential crime scene?” she asked Jody as they approached the officer standing at the head of the trail with his hands clasped in front of him.

Delilah had nothing to worry about though, the sheriff granting her an all access pass no questions asked and the deputy looked on, disinterested. They made their way up the trail and through the underbrush beside a large smooth boulder. Delilah’s shoes stuck slightly in the mud making her swear loudly when she almost lost one.

“Goddamn fucking pumps. Where are my Docs when I need them?” she mumbled to herself, careful to avoid the larger muddy patches.

She and Jody came to a standstill in the centre of a small irregularly shaped clearing, the muddy ground and tree roots giving way to a smooth rock shelf covered in patches of moss.

“You can see some of the plants were crushed here,” Jody said, as she pointed to the edge of the thickly growing ferns and trilliums.

Delilah glanced back to where they had come in and could see that there were crushed fronds there too from people coming and going. Delilah approached the area that Jody had pointed out and crouched down to look at the plants closely. She couldn’t see any blood or anything on them that would suggest something had been dragged through there. “Forensics checked the plants for blood I’m guessing?”

“Yeah, went over everything here with a fine tooth comb. Nothing. Not a drop.”

Delilah glanced back at her, “What about hair or fur?”

“No mention of hair, fur or fibres, but it’s forest floor, something could have been looked over I guess. What’re you thinking?”

“I dunno,” answered Delilah turning back towards the bent and broken ferns. She swept them to the side, looking for hidden things in the underbrush and noticed how beyond them there seemed to be a creek and beyond that thick tree cover. The foliage on that side of the creek though looked undamaged. “Where did you find the shoe?”

“Over here,” Jody said and Delilah straightened up, wiping the damp dew from the ferns on her pants.

Jody was pointing to a spot near the edge of the clearing towards the trail. The ground there was loamy, probably more rock underneath which is why the trees weren’t growing there. Delilah looked at the underbrush on that side and found nothing to indicate someone might have walked into the woods, or out of them.

“And the dogs found no trail? Even sniffing the shoe?”

Jody shook her head again, “Nope. Only what I suspect was the way they came in.”

“Could they have gone back out that same way?”

“I guess it’s possible, the tracks out there are contaminated by everybody else who uses these trails, so it’s hard to say. But I just can’t help shake this feeling like something real bad happened here. If I didn’t know better I’d say those kids were just teleported right out of here. Is that possible you think?”

“Teleport? Not that many creatures can do that actually,” she said, her mind running through the possible perps, remembering what she had learned while hunting down the imposters in Washington pretending to be a creature called thinman. “Did you smell sulfur on your first pass last night?”

“Naw. I would’ve recognized the smell if it had been demons. Those assholes stink.”

“Can’t be angels, not without their wings,” Delilah mused out loud as she slowly paced the space of the clearing, keeping her eyes on the ground trying to find more clues.

“Could we be dealing with a god?” asked Jody, “Sam, Dean and me went after something like that back in July. Was snatching people right out of thin air it seemed.”

“I don’t know much about gods, it could be possible I guess, but wouldn’t there be some form of ritual either to summon the god or to sacrifice to it?”

Jody shrugged, “The one I met was pretty much sacrificing to herself.” She shook her head slowly, looking thoroughly exasperated with the lack of clues.

“Seriously? How modern woman of her… Still…” Delilah turned around again, thinking about creatures that could teleport and trying to comb through her training with Dean.

_“Sometimes things look like they can do one thing, but really it’s something else entirely,” Dean told her as they disassembled and reassembled guns. “Some things are so fast and strong they might look like they’re flying, but really it’s just a jump. Doesn’t mean the fucker won’t get ya, just means it’ll catch you off guard because you’re looking for something else.”_

Delilah frowned and pulled her eyes away from the stone and looked back to where the shoe was found. Look for something else, she thought to herself again and slowly her eyes drifted up from the forest floor to eye level, and then further up still. She shielded her eyes against the few stray rays of sunshine seeping down through the thick foliage of the trees and then she saw it.

“Jody,” she called out, getting the sheriff’s attention. “Do you know of an animal that could do that?”

She pointed to the tree trunk, just below the line of dead lower branches on the thick evergreen. Jody turned to look at where she was pointing. It looked like something had gouged a chunk out of the tree.

“What the shit?” The sheriff exclaimed, getting an eyebrow raise from Delilah.

“Language, sheriff!” Delilah ribbed her, finding herself in a good mood suddenly. She pulled out her cell phone and zoomed in on the mark, taking a picture for later. Jody came to stand beside her and they looked at the picture together.

“Does that fit any animal claws you can think of?” Delilah asked her.

“Nothing I’ve ever seen. Look at the spread on the scratches there. This thing either has really long claws, or long digits.”

“Like a hand?” Delilah asked, looking at where the thin scratches were spread out around the uneven edge of the missing chunk of bark.

She looked back up to the tree. The claw mark had to be at least twelve feet in the air. No way could a human jump that high. And besides, there would be marks on the ground from where he had pushed off. She looked back down at the loamy ground at the foot of the tree and confirmed that there were no obvious prints that could have been left behind after a powerful jump like that.

“Well, if we’re ruling out animals, and humans… that leaves…” Jody trailed off, almost like she had read in Delilah’s thoughts.

“Yeah. Something is definitely not right about this.”

She looked down at her phone again trying to think of creatures with human-like hands, but with claws, and the strength to jump straight up twice a man’s height. Vampires and werewolves came to her immediately, but she didn’t want to discount the possibility that it could be something else too quickly. And besides, both vamps and werewolves would have left a print behind. The lamia she had confronted on her own too had had talon-like hands when she transformed, but that creek wasn’t enough to support a creature like that.

“Let’s go back to the station, see what I can find out about these scratch marks.”

Jody agreed and they headed back through the narrow, muddy path to the main trail and then back to the sheriff’s truck. The sheriff’s dispatch radio was crackling as they climbed in.

“Sheriff Mills, come in,” the radio said.

Jody reached for the mouth piece and held down the button on the side, “Mills, here.”

“Sheriff, I just received a call in through the emergency line. Looks like we may have another missing person.”

“Shit,” Jody said then held down the button again, “You got an address for me Markle?”

“Yeah, patching it through to your GPS right now.”

“Alright, on route.” She clipped the mouth piece back to the box and looked over at the GPS screen where a dot appeared on the map. “East Old Hickory,” she mumbled with a frown, “That’s not even close to here.”

“Jody, can you drop me off at the station? I’ll start looking some things up while you check out the call.”

“Yeah, ‘course.”

Jody shifted the truck into reverse and they left the trails and state park, the urgency of the situation heightened by the possibility of another victim.

 

“Hello?”

“Andrew, hey! You got a minute?”

“Delilah?”

“Yeah! Listen, d’you happen to have maps?”

 

Delilah stood at the conference room table, papers spread out all around her. It had taken a lot of convincing, and then verifying with the Sheriff through the dispatch radio, before deputy Markle let her back into the room without direct supervision. But Jody had spun her yarn, and Markle was too busy fielding calls, coordinating the search for the hikers and dispatching whatever available resources were left to different emergencies to argue with the orders.

Once Delilah disappeared into the room, she figured Markle would forget about her entirely, her only problem was lack of access to materials. She had stared at the map on the board for a good ten minutes before she remembered her earlier reflection about her colleagues’ reported noises and where they had heard them. She had ventured back out into the bullpen and tried to approach the dispatcher, but when she started in on her request, she got major glaring and death stare vibes from her, so she retreated to the conference room empty handed.

She started brainstorming with herself, making a list of everything she knew up ‘til then, including the noises, and where those noises were heard, she jotted down what Jody and her had found in the clearing, sending the picture she took to Jody so it could be printed later. She had started in on listing all possible creatures that could jump or fly, then started making lists of the signs to look for in each case.

When Andrew finally stepped through the door of the conference room, carrying the requested maps, it was to find her leaning over her papers and scribbling madly. Her braid had started to come undone because she kept running her hand in her hair trying to remember everything she knew about hunting.

“Andrew! Great! Did you bring the maps?”

“Um… yeah” he said, standing stiffly in the doorway and looking in turn at the mess of papers spread out on the table, the information on the board about the missing hikers and the map of Good Earth, and Delilah. “What are you doing in here?”

“I’m assisting in the search for the missing hikers,” Delilah stated matter-of-factly, without realizing just how strange that would be to her co-worker who knew her only as a low-level data-entry clerk in the billings department.

“And… this is something you… do?”

Delilah walked over to him, barely paying attention to him as she reached for the maps he had in his hands. It was only when he startled away, turning his body a bit like he was trying to keep something precious out of the hands of a maniac, that she lost her single-minded purpose and looked at him. He was looking more than a little freaked, his eyebrows knitted together, his eyes staring at her like it was the first time he saw her and he wasn’t sure he liked what he saw.

Delilah felt a small pang, realizing that what had taken her a month of ceaseless, active repression to forget had all come flooding back in the space of an hour with hardly any effort at all. She looked back at the mess of papers on the table, some of which had scattered in her rush to write down all the things that were coming to her. She rubbed at her cramping hand as she turned back to look at Andrew, poster boy of happy adjusted human, and she no longer saw him as a colleague, but as a civilian in need of protecting. But she also needed his help and expertise.

“I moonlight as a P.I.” she said, the lie flowing from her lips without hesitation, “Sheriff Mills sometimes hires me to help out on… special cases. It’s how I know her.”

There was a pause as she looked him in the eye, and she could see the cogs turning in his head as he absorbed the information and verified its validity with the information at hand. He suddenly straightened up, looking much more sure of himself, and Delilah felt relieved.

“How can I help?” he asked, the timber of his voice much more self-assured and Delilah smiled.

“Do you have the map of Sioux Falls and the area around it?”

“Um, yeah… right here.”

He moved to the table and put down the bundle of folded papers then looked through them quickly and pulled one out. He unfolded it and spread it out covering some of Delilah’s papers. He froze for a moment as he looked at something off to the side and Delilah followed his gaze to realize he was staring at one of her sheets of notes. She quickly reached for it and flipped it over pushing it to the side, hiding the characteristics run down she had written about werewolves.

She and Andrew spent the next half an hour pouring over the map as he told her about the different parts of Sioux Falls. Delilah identified the two areas where Mandy and Tanya had heard the noises and though they were on practically opposite ends of town, they were both on the outskirts of what was considered Sioux Falls, just as she had thought.

“What’s beyond here?” Delilah asked, pointing to a blank area on the map where just two roads criss crossed.

“Oh, nothing. It’s undeveloped woodland. We’re actually in negotiations with a building firm that wants to start a new neighbourhood out there.”

“But right now it’s woods?” Andrew nodded and she returned her gaze to the map. Mandi’s neighbourhood was close to the treeline in the west and Tanya lived near the eastern part of town, which wasn’t far from the state park. “Do woods surround Sioux Falls?”

“Mostly yeah, except for a couple small towns south. Everything else is woodland.”

His hand swept the map from left to right in an arc around the three other sides of the town. Delilah straightened up suddenly and Andrew looked back towards her before straightening up slowly. “What’s wrong?”

“Do the woods connect?” Delilah asked, looking down at the map and the areas she had marked off. Then her eyes drifted up to where Jody was responding to a call… right on the northern edge of town.

“Um, yeah, I guess. I mean there are no official trails that connect them or anything.”

“But a creature could use them to get around without being seen,” Delilah stated, feeling the surge of excitement as another piece fit into place.

“Creature?” Andrew said, sounding unsure, his eyes wide.

“Animal,” Delilah quickly corrected, glancing at him through a loose strand of hair. He went back to frowning at the map himself.

“I guess it’s possible, given time, for an animal to use the area for its hunting grounds. That’s more a question for animal control. What animal do you think you’re looking for?”

“Not sure yet.”

Delilah frowned, staring at the map. Even if a vampire or a werewolf can cover a lot of ground running, why would either one of those want to? It seemed like such a needless waste of energy.

“Could there by more than one?” suddenly asked Andrew.

Delilah turned to look at him, one arm across her chest while she fidgeted with the fingers of her other hand. “What?” she asked him, though her mind was already quickly assimilating the multiple creatures algorithm to her thinking.

“Like a pack. If there’s more than one animal, they can get to more places in what seems like less time.”

“Of course!” she cried out and she bent over the map again, scouring it for something. If they were dealing with a nest of vamps or with a pack of werewolves, they could go all over the place, but they would have a meeting point. Somewhere they could bring their kills back to so they could share. But where? They would need somewhere sheltered, vamps didn’t like daylight, so somewhere dark… “Are there any caves or old mines around Sioux Falls?”

“South Dakota is known for the Wind Caves, but that’s much further west. There are a few minor caves and natural tunnel systems that dot the area though.”

“Is there a map for those?”

Andrew shook his head looking down at the map of Sioux Falls, “No. They’re really not important enough to track. Some are barely bigger than depressions in cliff walls and such. I did bring a map that shows elevation though.” He pulled another map out of the stack and laid it flat over the previous map. “It shows you where the land rises and falls. Mountains, cliffs, hill, river beds, everything.”

Delilah stared down at the map and recognized where the Big Sioux River ran through Sioux Falls, but all other landmarks were lost on her as she looks at the uneven lines in lopsided circles that looked drawn by a three-year-old. “Damnit,” she mumbled under her breath as she tried to understand it.

Even after Andrew explained to her what the lines meant, she still couldn’t say she had any leads into where these bastard monsters were hiding.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be much help,” Andrew said, piercing through her focus.

“Don’t worry about it,” she mumbled around the end of her pencil, “Was a long shot anyways.”

She leaned forward and pulled the topographical map aside to look at the one below and she grabbed the pad of Post-It notes and started writing down the different locations of interest, sticking the note to the areas to see if maybe a pattern emerged, beyond all the sites being close to the tree-line.

“Hey!” Jody’s voice suddenly startled her, and she turned around, sweeping the room. “Did ya find anything?”

Delilah was slightly puzzled when she realized the only person in the room was herself and Jody… when did Andrew leave? She felt a slight pang of regret that she had apparently not even noticed his departure and therefore had probably been very rude to him, but she quickly brushed it aside when Jody started telling her about interviewing the girl who had called in the missing person.

“Marlene Baker, 64, lives on her own up on East Old Hickory. Her daughter tried to call her last night but couldn’t get through. She figured her mom was out and would call her back. When she didn’t hear from her this morning she called again and then went up to see her. She found her mom’s car all beat to hell and her grocery bags sitting on the stoop. She thought maybe her mom had had a health issue, but she tried calling the hospital and nothing. So she called us.”

“Was she in an accident?” Delilah asked confused.

“Damned if I know. There were no accidents reported yesterday with a red mini van involved.”

“Could she have had an accident on a different day?”

“No the daughter said she had seen her just the day before and the van was completely fine. Besides, I have no clue what damaged that van. It looks caved in like something big hit it, but there are no scratches, no paint chips either. Almost like it was run into by a deer.”

“Could that be it? She lives by the woods after all.”

Jody tilted her head, her eyes widening slightly as she considered it, unconvinced, “Unless she got hit by a bunch of angry deer from all sides.”

Delilah frowned. Pondering this new information. If she threw in her werewolf or vampire theory, it made more sense, but why would they attack the van?

“It was the strangest thing,” Jody went on, “There were two grocery bags just sitting by the door, like they had been set down carefully, but the mini van looked all beat up.” The sheriff frowned looking absently at something that wasn’t there.

Delilah bent down and wrote the latest victim’s name on a Post-It and added it to the map. Then she explained to Jody her theory about the woods, and the possibility of a pack or nest of somethings preying on the town’s outskirts.

“I’m thinking that maybe these fuckers are hiding somewhere in the woods, like in a cave or maybe an old mine shaft, right?” When Jody didn’t answer, Delilah turned around to look at her, she was staring wide-eyed at something on the map. “Jody?”

“When I was just a little girl,” she said, sounding like she was in a trance, “We went up to the cabin every chance we got. Except one year.” She turned to look at Delilah, her thoughts clearly racing. “I remember because I used to love going to the cabin, and my father had promised me that year that he would teach me to hunt. I was so angry with him, because he said we wouldn’t be going and he wouldn’t tell me why, just that it was dangerous… You don’t think that… Could this have happened before?”

Delilah’s brain raced to assimilate this new information and she and Jody stood for a moment just staring at each other as the possibility of a recurring issue broadened the scope of things significantly. They moved almost simultaneously, making their way out of the conference room and to Jody’s desk with the computer. Delilah pulled up a chair as Jody fired up the system and searched for events and missing persons from her childhood.

What they discovered made Delilah’s blood run cold. The year that Jody’s father refused to go up into the woods had missing people reports that far exceeded the average from the years before and after. There were reported incidents of animal mauling, remains left behind that were unrecognizable.

“Are there police reports we can look at for these attacks?”

“They’d be in the archives. In the basement.”

 

Armed with a list of dates and case numbers Delilah had spent a couple hours in the dust and mold of the basement filing room, pulling box after box of files and reports from the seventies. Photos of some of the killings were gruesome and the cases had been declared animal attacks and filed away. Many more were unresolved missing persons with little to no leads, or, it seemed, interest in solving it at all. Delilah found countless references to “nomadic tendencies,” and many of the missing weren’t even looked for, regardless that the numbers were off the chart that summer, the whole thing had been brushed off as draft dodgers.

The story these missing people told Delilah though was entirely different. It told of a monster preying on the town for decades and never being found, or dealt with. But she was determined to fix it. She was going to get this fucker. She wrote down last known locations of the missing, as well as the sites for the animal attacks and then put everything away and rushed back upstairs to share with the sheriff.

Together they added the new sites to the map, using pins on the cork board, Jody having replaced the map of Good Earth with the one Andrew had brought down. The majority of the missing seemed to have been taken in and around what used to be the town limits, Sioux Falls having expanded over the years.

More than that, while Delilah was looking up the cases from 1975, Jody had found more “bad years” for disappearances and animal attacks. And had plotted those on the map too. The result was a terrifying story of recurring attacks almost always around Sioux Falls city limits.

“2014, 2001, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1975, 1962… And that’s just what we have on record. We have practically nothing that pre-dates the consolidation back in the ‘50s. This has been going on for so long! How did we never notice it before?”

“There’s no pattern. I mean, I’m seriously stumped here. I was thinking werewolves or vampires, but this makes no sense. If a nest or a pack was established nearby, the killings would be much more regular.”

“What if we’re dealing with nomads? Maybe they have a circuit they follow and Sioux Falls is just it this year,” Jody said, frowning as they brainstormed.

“I don’t know. It’s possible I suppose. But then there would have been attacks in neighbouring cities and counties, and I’m just not seeing it. There’s no pattern for time, and there’s no pattern for attacks, other than all of them hitting on the edges. It’s weird… and I mean weird even for monsters. I’m stumped.”

Delilah and Jody sat back in their chairs just facing the board, looking dejected. Delilah refused to give up, though her mind just kept going over and over the same information coming to the same dead end conclusions: she had no idea what was happening to Sioux Falls. She even found herself almost dismissing the whole thing as an overreaction before shaking herself again and going over everything in her head for the hundredth time, hoping to come to a different conclusion.

“I think it might be time to call in the back up,” Jody said, turning to look at Delilah.

She turned to look at the sheriff, her heart giving a nervous pang in her chest; the only back up they would need for this kind of thing is another hunter, and the only ones she knew were…“No,” she said quickly, swallowing hard and shaking her head as her thoughts were taken over once again by memories of the last year and the events of the last couple of months she had spent with the Winchesters, and the underlying pain of it.

“Delilah, I know this is hard, but we need help on this. I can’t let this thing keep killing my folks. We need someone with more experience.”

Delilah tried to imagine calling Dean Winchester, her mind lingering on memories of her thumb hovering over his name in her contacts and then pushing it away roughly and downing another drink.

“Hun, I’ll call Sam, okay? You don’t need to worry about it. I’ll be right back.”

“It’s okay, Jody,” Delilah said taking a deep breath, “You can call him here. I need to hear what he has to say, too. This is too important.”

Jody solemnly nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket. Delilah focused on steadying her nerves by looking at the map again, and all those pins on there reminding her of all the lives that had already been taken by this thing… and the many more they could be saving by making this phone call.

“Hey, Sam,” Jody said into the receiver, making Delilah jump, but the sheriff pushed on without a pause, “It’s Jody, listen… we got ourselves a bit of a pickle over here in Sioux Falls. Would appreciate a call back so we can maybe pick your brain about it. Call me back, please.”

Delilah took a deep breath, realizing suddenly how tightly wound up she had gotten in the past few seconds at the prospect of hearing from Sam… and her feelings of guilt about abandoning him in the middle of the search for Metatron. She had not done right by Sam in the midst of the bullshit with his brother, and she knew that.

“Left a message. Let’s hope he calls back soon. He’s probably still looking for his brother.”

“What?” Delilah suddenly reacted, her brain going ballistic with screaming worry and confusion, “What do you mean, looking for his brother?”

“Look, I didn’t want to tell you about this. When you showed up when you did, you were a mess, and I didn’t think this was something you needed to hear then.”

“What, Jody? If something happened to Dean,” she shuddered saying his name, “I want to know.”

Jody sighed, “About a week after you came here, Sam called me. He asked me if I had seen or heard from Dean. He sounded... stressed, upset. He didn’t want to tell me what was up, he just kept avoiding my questions.”

“Dean went AWOL?”

“That’s what it sounds like. Sam told me he left nothing but a note.” Delilah frowned, confused and suddenly very worried about Dean and his state of mind the last time she had seen him… Sam and Cas had locked him away in the dungeon and he was half out of his mind. “Sam said something else, too.”

“What’s that?”

“He told me, that if I did see him… that I had to be careful.”

“What? Why?”

“I dunno! He didn’t say, just to be careful.”

Delilah’s mind drifted back to her last moments in the bunker. The wall she had built around her memories suddenly disappearing and yet not overwhelming her, like she had been afraid it would.

_“Dean,” Sam said, clutching his phone, “Pick up the phone. Call me back. I’m not kidding alright? Don’t do this. Not like this.”_

At the time, Delilah had been too much in shock to really understand or care about what had happened to Dean, but thinking about it now, she figured he had gone off with Crowley on his vengeance spree against Metatron, half cocked as always and jacked up on the anger the mark seemed to fuel him with.

The shrill sound of Jody’s ring tone suddenly startled her out of the memory and Delilah nearly grabbed for it, the intense need to apologize to Sam almost undoing her calm. Jody hit the answer button though, a confused frown on her face.

“Alex?” she said, her tone mirroring Delilah’s sudden confusion. “Is everything alright?” she asked, glancing at her watch.

Delilah pulled her own phone out of her pocket and checked the time. It was mid-afternoon, Alex would just be finishing school and getting ready to get on the bus. Delilah tuned in to the side of the conversation that she could hear, Jody’s face breaking into a smile.

“Alright, Alex. I trust you. Have fun with your friends, and be careful okay?” Jody hung up the phone and turned to look at Delilah.

“What’s up?” she asked, curious about the call.

“Alex made some friends. She’s going to go hang out with them after school.”

Delilah felt a rush of pride for Alex. She deserved to be happy and around people. Sounded like she was maybe hitting it off with Iris after all. She tried to hang on to the warm fuzzy feeling in her stomach, but her eyes drifted to the map on the board and her stomach sank suddenly.

“I hope she’s staying close to the centre of town.”


	18. Chapter 18

Alex tapped the disconnection button on her phone and looked around, unsure. Jody had sounded a little strange, like she was maybe a little too cheerful. Wasn’t she supposed to warn her about hanging out with the right kids or something? Delilah must have been telling her about her plans to befriend Iris. She wasn’t sure if she was annoyed with her for spilling her secrets, or if she liked the idea that the adults in her life were concerned about her enough to talk about her.

It had taken her the better part of the afternoon classes to make up her mind about meeting with Iris, the lessons passing in a Charlie Brown blur, her brain not absorbing a lick of information. She had decided, finally, that her desire to not feel so completely alone outweighed whatever reservations she had about suddenly being around a bunch of strangers. After all, hadn’t she spent years observing people? She could hide behind her mask a little longer, while she made up her mind about these new additions to her potential social life.

She tucked her phone away in her pocket and hiked her bag further up her shoulder taking a deep breath then huffing out some of her anxiety. She pushed open the door that led to the closed courtyard and looked around as the breeze buffeted her hair around her face. As she approached the corner of the cafeteria building, around which was the door that Iris had designated as the meeting point, she stared down at her feet, suddenly seized with doubt: what if she wasn’t there? What if Iris had been luring her in just to spring some sort of trap on her? What if the whole thing was some sort of Carrie bullshit and she was about to be completely humiliated? What if she actually showed up?

Alex took another deep breath and looked up. The sight of the blonde stamping her feet and hugging her arms against the cool air chased her worries away and as Iris spotted her coming her way, the girl’s lips stretching into a broad smile, her almost lazy wave filled Alex with a quiet happiness and she waved back, a tentative smile pulling at her mouth too.

Alex drew up to the blonde and without a word they moved away across the paved yard towards the football field. Alex looked back towards where the busses were idling, filling up with the swarms of teens heading home, and wondered where they were heading.

“Aren’t we getting on the bus?” Alex asked as she followed Iris up the steps.

“I avoid those things as much as possible. Death traps. And if I’m going to die in a crumpled heap of twisted metal, I prefer to be crushed into people I actually like, rather than the assholes that ride in those things.” Alex raised her eyebrows in surprise and Iris gave her another wide smile while she twisted her shirt around, reaching inside the collar, her face scrunched in concentration. “Lukas has a car. He parks it on the other side of the pool building.”

Iris finally managed to fish out whatever she had been looking for and Alex watched as she pulled the wired ear bud through the collar of her sweater and stuck it in her ear, the mystery of Iris’ in-class head bobbing solved. She turned away to look across the field towards the school pool and could just make out the line of cars where the seniors were allowed to park. Leaning against one of them, she could just see the fire-engine-red-mohawked boy from the cafeteria yesterday. “So, what’s your jam?” Iris asked her suddenly, making her turn her head towards her.

“Um, strawberry?” Alex answered confused, glancing at Iris who was looking down at her phone in her hand, the earphone jack sticking out, the wire disappearing under her clothes.

The blonde slowly looked up and frowned at her, then suddenly burst into a full laugh, making Alex smile confusedly at her. “Not jam jam, dummy! Oh that’s good. I mean band, musician, singer, genre, whatever… what kind of music do you like?”

“Oh!” Alex was feeling very silly suddenly, but Iris continued chuckling and muttering strawberry under her breath and she smiled shyly again, tucking a strand of her long hair behind her ear. “I don’t really listen to music much.”

“Are you serious?” Iris grabbed her arm and stopped her completely while she looked at her like she had just told her she had seen Bigfoot once. Alex shrugged apologetically and after a scrutinizing, wide-eyed glare from the scandalized blonde, the girl shook her head and started walking again. “I don’t know how you do it. Music is life! I seriously think that music is like ninety-nine percent responsible for me not going bat-shit crazy and attacking half the jerks that populate this prison.”

Alex looked back towards the grey sided building with its wide windows and shrugged. “I dunno. It’s not that bad, I guess.”

“It’s Hell, I can’t wait to graduate.”

Alex nodded her head, not agreeing with her assessment but also not wanting to antagonize her. They were closer to the car lot now and she could see that the red-haired boy was pulling on a cigarette while he leaned against the passenger side door. The other senior from the cafeteria was sitting behind the wheel. Alex felt her nerves tightening and she hitched up her backpack again as they came up to the car.

“Hey Iris, ‘bout time you got here, we were about to leave your skinny ass behind,” said the red-haired boy.

“As if Trevor. You wouldn’t have the balls to ditch my fine ass.”

“Baby, your ass ain’t that fine,” he responded, dropping his cigarette butt to the ground and grinding it into the pavement. “Who did you fish out of the reject pond now?”  
Alex ducked her head, tucking a strand of hair nervously as Iris pulled open the back door of the car.

“This is Alex. She’s cool,” she said as she plopped down on the stained fabric covering the back seat of the beat up Ford Taurus.

She scooted down to behind the driver Alex assumed was Lukas and wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind in a quick hug. Trevor was just staring down at Alex, drawing back his shoulders and making himself tower over her, a hard look on his face. She swallowed forcefully, looking away and Iris popped her head out the open door.

“Get in losers, I wanna get the fuck away from here sometime this century, yeah?”

Trevor pulled open the passenger door and sat down beside the driver, leaving Alex standing alone beside the car feeling unsure about this whole venture. Then, she looked at the open door and made up her mind. She pulled her bag off her shoulder and sat down on the back seat, the shocks bouncing alarmingly, and then closed the back door. Loud music was blasting out the speakers, a male voice screaming in a guttural growl, the fast drum beats and base screwing with her heartbeat. Iris was staring out the other window, Lukas and Trevor were staring out the windshield, and so Alex turned to stare out her own window, wondering what kind of adventure she had just embarked upon.

They pulled up, after a short drive, to a small, nondescript house, like the kind that littered Sioux Falls in the nicer suburbs of the large city, and betrayed the upper middle class accumulated wealth of middle-aged parents. Alex raised her eyebrows, wondering whose house this was. Certainly not Trevor, who seemed proud of his mostly dilapidated clothing style and I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude. When he pulled a set of keys from his torn jeans, her surprise must have been all over her face, ogling the tall mismatched teen disappearing through the door, because Iris started laughing, looking right at her.

“Oh God! That look is priceless,” she waited for Trevor to disappear into the house, then led Alex and Lukas towards the wooden gate in the fence. “See, Trevor’s just an ass, like everyone else. He looks tough, but he’s just trying to figure things out like you, like me, like everyone really.” Alex nodded and she went on, “That’s the big secret about people…. No one’s got any of this shit figured out, they just pretend they do and hope no one else catches on about how much bullshit they’re slinging.”

“Except you, right?” Alex asked her as they approached a circle of stones with a pile of ashes in the middle. Lukas cracked a smile and shook his head walking away towards a pile of logs neatly stacked to the side.

“Ha!” Iris responded loudly, “I’m the biggest bullshit slinger out there. You think over-confidence like this comes naturally? Hell no! It takes years of self-hatred and mimicry to master.” She flipped her hair and flashed her smile, raising her pale eyebrows at Alex.

Noise coming from the gate pulled Iris away and she left Alex by the fire pit while she rushed over to the girls from art class. Alex turned back towards the back of the yard. The solid wooden fence continued along the edges of the property to the back, but the entire back wall was open to the woods bordering the yard in an attempt to capture nature in the midst of suburbia. Trevor’s parents probably had to pay extra for the privilege of missing fence panels.

Alex looked again towards the ashes left behind by past fires and suppressed the shivers trying to crawl up her spine. Ashes were all hunters left behind when they eliminated nests. One of the last things she remembered from her time as a vampire, was the scent of her burning brothers as Dean Winchester had set the house ablaze.

She closed her eyes against the memory, trying to banish it even as nostalgia tugged at her. For better or worse, her family had been there for her and taken care of her. She winced remembering the feel of Dale’s teeth in her neck. Of all of them, he was always the one who would get carried away, savage, when he fed on her.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Iris lay her hand on Alex’s arm startling her back to the moment and she realized she had been rubbing the raised scar tissue on her neck. Iris was watching her with a frown and she quickly tugged her shirt collar against her neck.

“I’m fine,” she answered hurriedly.

Iris kept her eyes on her a moment longer, worrying her lower lip but not asking any other questions, much to Alex’s relief.

The blonde turned back towards the girls as Trevor came out of the house again holding a guitar by the neck, the body leaning on his shoulder. Lukas dropped some wood close to the pit and started stacking it. Before she knew it, they had all settled into the plastic lawn chairs and a fire was happily crackling, managing to dispel some of the cold. Here in the closed in yard, the wind wasn’t blowing as hard and the warmth from the fire was quickly making it comfortable to sit outside on the cool May late afternoon.

The sound of guitar strings being plucked quickly filled the air and Alex found herself watching the put-offish teen as he shed his attitude, losing himself in his playing. Beside her Iris was bobbing her head with her eyes closed. Lukas and the girls started quietly singing a song they clearly all knew, relaxed smiles on their faces. The mood around the fire was calm and comfortable, everyone slowly shedding the shells and masks they kept firmly in place throughout the school day.

Alex looked from face to face, at the contentedness there, the teens comfortable around each other, each weird in their own way and kept apart from most social groupings at school, yet finding community with each other. It was so different from anything she had ever experienced. Granted, her family had been close, bound together by Mama who had turned each of them and made them a family, but even with them, she always had the thought at the back of her head that she was no more than food, a pet cow they kept because she provided them with sustenance - not truly a part of the group. Could she possibly ever become part of this one? As anxious as she had been to find herself around so many people she didn’t know, now she could feel the craving rise in her, the ardent wish to be included, to truly belong.

Lukas flicked the stone on his lighter and lit the tip of a cigarette taking a deep breath. Alex frowned when he passed it to Iris on his right and she got a whiff of the fragrant, pungent smoke. Iris took a deep breath too, holding the smoke in her lungs longer than she did when she had smoked her cigarette beside her on the bleachers. Alex realized what it was as she held it out towards her. She took it from Iris’s hand tentatively and looked up, unsure and hesitant, and Iris blew out the smoke from her lungs.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Alex made up her mind and pulled in air through the rolled paper. Right away her lungs started burning and she couldn’t hold it like the others did and she ended up choking, coughing out the smoke. She passed it on to the girl on her right who was holding out her hand for it. Iris smiled at her then leaned back in the chair with her eyes closed.

Nothing much happened and Alex wondered what all the hype was about. She looked around the gathered people, wondering why the drug had no effect on her. Slowly, as she came to the conclusion that nothing was going to happen, Alex started to relax. The heat from the fire licked and lapped at her in a wonderfully blissful way and she sat back in the chair, letting the glow fill her. She watched as a bright orange ember detached from a burning log and floated up into the air, burning more brightly and then turning to white ash and floating away. She felt light as that piece of ash and found herself letting out a laugh, shaky and rusty, but an honest expression of her well-being. She looked to her left and Iris was smiling again, and this time Alex smiled back widely, pulling at muscles she had all but forgotten how to use. Maybe this stuff wasn’t so bad after all, she thought.

Something moved beyond the tree trunks and Alex tried to focus on it with a frown. It had moved too fast, just barely registering on her periphery, but she was sure she had seen it, seen something. She stood from her chair trying to get a better look and her head felt a little light, dizziness confusing her. She watched attentively the spot between the tree trunks where she had seen the blur of movement in the shadows. Just when she figured she had hallucinated the whole thing, she saw it again, movement among the trees stirred the dead leaves and needles strewn on the ground faster than any animal, as fast as…

Alex took a step backwards and tripped over the chair as she tried to get away from the vampire stalking them.

“Alex! Are you okay?” Iris asked her with a giggle as she stood and bent down towards her to help her up.

“They found me!” Alex said shrilly. “The vampires found me!”

“What? Alex, calm down. It’s okay. You’re just tripping. Just take deep breaths.” Iris was kneeling beside her holding her shoulder.

Suddenly the quiet, peaceful backyard was filled with the sounds of screams and Alex watched, dazed, as chairs fell backwards and their occupants scrambled to get away. The blur moved around, throwing people to the side, Trevor flying into the wooden fence separating the yard from the neighbours and the wood splintered and crumbled under his weight as he disappeared through the gap left behind by the impact.

Iris fell back and tried to scramble away from the threat, but it was coming from all sides and she kept turning her head trying to see it. Alex knew it was pointless to actually see the vamp. It would be the last thing they saw if they did.

“We have to get out of here, Iris! Now!”

“What’s happening? What the hell is going on?” the confused blonde said, scared.

Alex jumped to her feet, grabbing Iris by the arm to pull her with her and the girl struggled to her feet to follow her. She felt something knock into her sending her sprawling to the ground and her head connected with one of the stones around the fire pit and she blacked out.


	19. Chapter 19

It had been a couple hours, and Delilah had finally collapsed into one of the conference room chairs, her elbow up on the armrest as she rubbed at the headache building behind her eyes.  Jody was still going, peppering their fruitless brainstorming with another two calls to Sam’s voicemail.  It was odd for Sam to not return a call from a friend in need.  Delilah worried about this even as she half expected him to stroll in through the door any minute.  Something in her gut though was telling her that he was not coming and she worried.  Because why would he not return Jody’s call, unless he was in some serious trouble.

She leaned forward and reached for her phone that she had laid on the edge of the table earlier.  She fiddled with it nervously, rubbing her thumb along the groove of the screen like it was a worry stone.  Jody sat back on the rounded end of the table facing the map of Sioux Falls, obscured by the pins and mumbling to herself.  They had been stuck on the fact that there was simply no pattern to the disappearances, other than the outskirts of the populated areas being at risk for attacks.  No area, north, south, east or west, was hit harder than others, even from year to year.  They had decided that if they looked at it logically, the most likely meeting point for who or whatever was doing this was dead centre in the middle of town because it’s equidistant from all the points of abduction and attack, but for this thing to not have been seen in all this time, in a hundred years, suggests it’s either humanoid and able to hide in plain sight, which could be a slew of long-living creatures from lamia to vampire to even werewolves if they’re pure blood enough, or it’s incredibly good at hiding, even through the urbanisation from town to one of the most populous cities in the state.

“Are we seeing something that isn’t there, Delilah?  Are we crazy?  None of this makes sense.  Maybe all those people really did just go missing.  Poof!” Jody gestured in the air with her hand, like she was waving a cloud of smoke away lazily.

Delilah shook her head and turned to look at the slowly refilling bullpen outside the door, the change in shift coming up again.  It had been a hive out there all day, people coming and going, calls coming in and deputies going out to answer.  No other disappearances though, and nothing more suspicious than the usual things to be expected in a busy city.  Delilah’s gut kept screaming at her though.  Something was going on.  Something that wasn’t part of normal.  She was sure of it.  They needed help, and fast if they wanted to solve this thing.

She glanced down at her phone in her hands again and tapped her contacts almost distractedly, like it would make this easier.  She swiped up with her thumb, his name coming up quickly near the top of her very few contacts.  Jody turned and Delilah looked up, the movement catching her attention.  She fixed the sheriff with eyes that were asking her silently if she had to, knowing that she did, even without the woman’s responding body language: her eyes wide, her lips pursed in worry.

Delilah took a shaky breath and let her thumb land on his name, pulling it back right away like she had been burned.  The contact list disappeared, replaced by a black screen and his name splashed across it like a warning sign: “Abandon all hope!” as the phone rang.  She could hear it in her hand and with the second ring her palms grew sweaty and her breath caught in her chest.  She felt a huge weight crushing her as her heart beat against her ribs.  The phone rang a third time and the pressure was suffocating her, her breath short like she was being chased by a monster.  She didn’t wait for the fourth ring.

Delilah tapped the cancel button and hung up, her heart still pounding in her tight chest.

“I’m sorry Jody,” she whispered.

“No, sweetheart, don’t apologize.  We’ll figure this out.  Or we’ll reach Sam.  Something.  Don’t worry, we just have to look at all this from a different angle, that’s all.”

Delilah nodded her head, staring at her phone absently in her hands, feeling like she was failing Jody, and all the people of Sioux Falls who were counting on her to solve this, even if they didn’t know it.  “I’m sorry, I just don’t know what’s happening here.  I’m just not good enough to figure this out.”

“Hey!  You listen to me, missy,” Jody said sharply, making Delilah snap her eyes to hers, “You are good enough.  You are an amazing woman and together we’ll kick this thing in the ass.  But not with that piss poor attitude.  So, snap out of it!”  Delilah blinked a few times, the tears that had been threatening startled away by Jody’s forcefulness.  “Now if you’re done feeling sorry for yourself, we’ve got a case to crack, so let’s get this done.”

Delilah swallowed the lump in her throat as Jody turned around again to look at the board and go over again what they had found so far.  Delilah straightened up in her chair reaching forward to put her phone back on the table when she hit one of the buttons accidentally and her contacts list lit up the screen again.  Her eyes landed on a name near the bottom of the screen and her eyes widened in excitement.  She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought about it before!

The rush of hope overtook her suddenly, the potential for fresh input and a new perspective renewed and she stood up abruptly as she tapped the name and put the phone to her ear.  Jody turned to look at her confused.  But just then a warm, familiar, Tennessee voice chimed in, interrupting the ringtone.

“Hey amiga!  Como esta?”

Delilah smiled into the phone, unable to hold it back, the ever cheerful hunter turned werewolf just bringing it out of her, “Hey Garth.  You got a minute?”

“For a friend? I even got five.  What can I do ya for?”

“Okay, well, I’m hunting… something.  But none of the facts add up to anything coherent.”

“Oh, well hey, if this thing’s got the Winchesters stumped, I don’t know just how much help I’ll be.”

“Um, no,” Delilah swallowed hard starting to pace as she held the phone to her ear.  Jody had tuned in to the side of the conversation she could hear, waiting expectantly for information.  “It’s just me.”

“Oh!” said the voice on the phone, his surprise outweighing his cheerfulness, but not for long, “Well alright then, let’s hear it.  Whatcha got?”

Delilah took a deep breath and let it out, not realizing how worried she had been until then, though what there was to be worried about, she didn’t know. “Okay, well we’re tracking something that’s been preying on Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  We think it might have been going on for nearly a hundred years.”

“Okay, that sounds like a big deal.  You got a handle of the M.O. yet?  You say prey, you got bodies?  You workin’ with the law down there?”

“Yeah, the sheriff is a friend,” she said with a smile for Jody, “but we don’t have a body.  Not this time around.  Not yet.  What we have is a few missing persons.  Gone without a trace.  We did find a strange claw mark way up high in a tree at one of the scenes, and a shoe.”

“Right shoe?” Garth interrupted her.

“What? No.  Left.  What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Nothin’, was just wondering, but you never know.”

Delilah frowned at the phone.  One of the deputies walked into the conference room, a quiet knock on the door.

“Sorry, Sheriff Mills?” he asked, Delilah asking Garth to hold a minute.

“What is it, Frank?” Jody asked, looking concerned.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we might need you out here a minute.”

“You got it,” she answered pushing off from the table and heading for the door, giving Delilah an encouraging nod before disappearing into the bullpen.

Delilah returned her attention to Garth on the phone.  “Sorry about that.  Anyways, so this claw mark looks nothing like any animal paw we’ve seen around here.  The marks are too wide apart and angled like a hand.”

“Opposable thumb?”

“Yah.”

“Way up high?”

“Yeah.  You think you know what it is?”

“Nope. Not yet, but keep goin’”

“Okay,” she said with a sigh, “well there’s nothing else, just that one claw mark, a shoe and no other trace of two twenty-somethings who haven’t been seen since.  And now we’ve got another person gone missing, could be the same thing.”

“Alright, sounds like it could be something.  What can you tell me about the others, you said this been happenin’ for a century?  Any bodies from before?”

“Yeah, but all the reports say about those is animal attacks.  Maulings and such.”

“Hearts?” Garth asked, sounding unusually somber.

“I checked, whatever remains were left behind, it doesn’t fit werewo… lycanthropes… sorry.”

“No worries compadre!” he said, sounding cheerful again, “Did ya think about rugarus? Them suckers are nasty.”

“It just doesn’t sit right.  Rugarus are out of control.  This is just too precise. I can’t even pick out a cycle, sometimes the attacks last for years, and sometimes just a month or two before they stop altogether.”

“Did ya look into the towns around you?  Maybe it skipped town.”

“We checked that too, and there’s no evidence that anywhere around here has suffered the same attacks outside the same years we have on record.”

“Well! Sounds like you got yourself a real pickle there.”

Delilah’s shoulders slumped.  He didn’t know what it was either.   They were back to square zero, with no new leads.  Somehow, she really didn’t want to wait for another victim just so they could get more clues.  “Well, thanks anyways, Garth.  We’ll just have to keep looking into it, I guess.  Hope to get lucky.”

“Whoa! Hey!  Wait a minute there girly!  I didn’t say I can’t help.  Let’s go over it again.  This thing attacks but no one sees it, right?”

“Right,” she said, slowly.

“Ok, so we’re talking about something real fast, cuz you didn’t mention any demon-ey stuff.  And if you have no idea where to look, it means the hunting grounds are all spread out all over the place, right?”

“Um, yeah,” Delilah was amazed by his spot on deductions, “but always on the outskirts of town.”

“Well alright then! And you said this last one was in the woods, right? Trees?  You got trees all around Sioux Falls.”

Delilah smiled, “And you know this without even looking?”

“Oh yeah! I got a cousin, well not me, my sweet Bess’s got a cousin, who lives around there. Primo bear territory not too far.”

“Bear?” Delilah asked somewhat skeptical.

“Ah yeah!  Man gets tired of cow hearts.”  Delilah blinked, trying to get the image of tall stick thin Garth going after a bear and eating its heart.  She couldn’t completely supress the shudder either. “So, yeah. Woods.  And you’re looking for something that hibernates.  Hmmmm.  I’m sorry, but looks like you got yourselves a wendigo.”

“A Wendigo?  But that’s an Appalachian myth.  What the hell would that be doing all the way out here?”

“You know the first rule of surviving when you’re a monster, Delilah?”  She couldn’t find the words to answer a question like that, so Garth went on, “You don’t stay where they know ya and hunt ya.  Wendigos ain’t been seen in the Appalachian mountains in hundreds of years… now the mid west?  Whole other story.  Wendigos are humans gone all sorts of nasty.  They’re much more monster than human, especially one that’s been at it this long, but they are smart, and fast and hunt better than any creature alive.  You watch your back, cuz this thing is cunning.”

Delilah took a deep breath both relieved and scared.  A wendigo.  Might as well be going after Bigfoot itself.  “How do I kill it Garth?”

“Fire.  Only thing that’ll get rid of this thing.  Shoot it, stab it, you’re not even gonna pierce the skin and you’re just gonna piss it off.  And you don’t want a pissed off Wendigo on your ass.  You’re gonna want back up on this one.  I’d come down and help but with the missus getting ready to pop, I can’t leave her.”

“Oh my god!  Bess is pregnant?  Um, Congratulations!” Delilah said, a little perplexed as the image of a litter of humanoid puppies running around flashed in her head and she shook it away, determined to never say anything to Garth about the ridiculous image.

“Thanks, means a lot,” he said, sounding genuinely pleased, like her opinion of his having werewolf progeny truly mattered to him.  “Now, for your wendigo, my suggestion is find where it’s hiding, most likely a cave, something permanent, these things like to stick to their dens.  Find it and go at it with a flamethrower, light that sucker up.  But do it during the day.  It’s gonna have a serious advantage in the dark, you read me?”

Delilah forced a laugh, “I read you.  Thanks Garth,” she said, getting ready to hang up so she could form a plan with Jody about hunting down this thing.

“Um, Delilah,” Garth said, getting her attention again to her phone, “You know, if ever you need to talk…  about whatever, you know life, uh, Dean…”  Delilah swallowed hard, her grip on her phone suddenly increasing as her pulse rocketed once again.  “I just want you to know, I’m a real good listener.”

Delilah cleared her throat awkwardly and forced herself to again calm down, sitting back against the table as Jody walked back into the room.  “Thanks, Garth.  Really.  It’s good to know that.  Take care of your family, ‘kay?”

“Oh, shoot I almost forgot… You haven’t found any remains yet, right?”

“No, nothing, not a trace.  Why?” Delilah asked, frowning at the sudden switch back to hunting talk.

“I’d get movin’ if I were you…  Wendigo don’t always kill their prey.  Sometimes they like a little midnight snack, if ya catch my meanin’.”

Delilah’s pulse quickened, the situation becoming suddenly a hundred times more urgent, “Are you saying there’s a chance they’re still alive?”

“It’s definitely possible.”

“I gotta go, Garth.  Thanks for the intel!”

“Call me anytime, don’t be a stranger, got it?  And Delilah…  Don’t get dead.”

She pulled the phone away from her ear and hit the end button, whatever temporary warmth that had replaced the dread of the past few weeks’ loneliness dissipated by the thought that somewhere out in those woods, there were people that might need saving.  Jody stepped into her field of vision, and something in Delilah’s face must betray her new concerns, because the sheriff was looking worried.

Delilah felt the mounting adrenaline as she was filled with a new sense of purpose now that she had a monster and a way to kill it.

“So?” Jody asked her, dread in her voice and posture.

Delilah quickly bent over the table and pulled out the topographical map Andrew had left behind, starting her search for potential caves.  “Garth says we’re dealing with a wendigo.”

“A wendigo!” Jody exclaimed a little loudly before readjusting the volume of her voice, “Okay.  Nothing quite like going up against a legend.  Shit.”

“That’s not all.  He says the victims might still be alive if its keeping them to feed on later.”

Jody’s eyes widened and sparked, the sheriff clearly fueled by the same urgency that took over Delilah.  The two hunters nodded at each other, understanding all too well the stakes when innocent lives were in imminent danger.

“Okay! Wendigo! So, what’s next?” she said.

“Next we find where it’s hiding its legendary ass.  I’m looking for potential cave formations, gonna try and narrow the search grid down to likely places before you and I go traipsing out there like two blind fools.”

Jody grabbed her jacket that she had slung over the back of her chair.  “Great! Hey, I gotta go check out this report.  Sounds like this wendigo might have hit again.  You start working on that map and we’ll make a plan for tomorrow.”

“Be careful, Jody.  Garth says wendigos hibernate… it’s possible this thing is only just getting started.  The longer it goes the more awake it’ll be.”

“Gotcha.  I’ll be back.”

With a strained smile, Jody headed out the door throwing her uniform jacket on.  Delilah turned back towards the map, looking for the closely drawn lines of wobbly circles that would suggest a sheer drop in elevation, and possibly natural cave entrances.  She circled those areas she found with a red marker from the dry erase board all the while wondering where she could get herself a flamethrower.  She figured she could probably make one, like Sam had when they had hunted down those changelings in New Mexico.  Thinking of Sam, she felt a pang of guilt.  He had helped pick her up after she had been kidnapped and tortured by Adriel.  He had brought her back to life after Dean had left them both… the first time.

_“Come on, Sam!  Big moose like you afraid of a little thing like me?”_

_Sam straightened up from his stance, dropping his arms to his sides and pursing his lips at her, “Don’t call me ‘moose’,” he said sounding annoyed._

_A bird called in the distance as the wind rustled the remaining leaves in the autumn trees and Delilah laughed as his hand shot out at the end of his insanely long reach, trying to catch her off-guard, going for her face.  She stepped to the side, her smile not even faltering as she grabbed his wrist, turning so her back was to him and folding under his arm as she bent it backwards and twisted his wrist.  Sam cried out in surprise and a little pain as she raised her free hand and tapped the side of his neck from behind._

_“And I just lopped your head off.  Are you a vamp? ‘Cause that’s what I do to vamps.”_

_She released his arm and Sam laughed as he turned to look at her, rolling his shoulder.  She bounced on the grass littered with leaves, the broken asphalt road down the hill to her right, the towering building above the bunker behind her, shaking her arms like a caricature of a boxer._

_“Okay Buffy, calm down.”_

_“There is no stopping me.  You sure you’re a hunter?  That was so easy!  I’m surprised you’re not already monster bait!”_

_His arms were a blur and Delilah saw nothing until suddenly she found herself in a headlock, her hands grabbing ineffectually at his corded forearm as her neck was squeezed by his bicep.  He brought his other arm down and reached around her to lay his fist against her solar plexus._

_“And that’s how I kill, angels, demons, shapeshifters…  So, who’s monster bait now?”_

She had not done right by him, she realized again as the memory faded back to where it came from.  She closed her fist tightly, angry with herself.  She had left him right when Dean had disappeared again, choosing to go her own way instead of staying and being there for him.  Sam was a rock, but even rocks break sometimes.  She vowed to call him and be a better friend to him.  After this hunt was over, she would make sure Sam was alright.

A commotion in the bullpen drew Delilah’s attention suddenly and she straightened up from the map slowly, looking at the door perplexed as certain words drifted to her.  Thing.  Attacked.  Nightmare.  Iris.

Delilah’s heart jumped into her throat and she rushed out of her secluded work space and into the main part of the station.  Her eyes landed immediately on the tall teen near the welcome desk.  Deputy Jim, who had replaced Markle at the shift change, was trying to get him to calm down as he brushed off another deputy, looking completely erratic.  The boy had fire engine red hair that was messily standing out at odd angles and his face and arms were all scratched up, his clothes all messy and muddy.

“You have to help them!” he yelled again, Jim finally forcing him to sit down in a chair near one of the desks in the bullpen.

“Calm down.  We’ll get your friends help, but you need to calm down.”

“Hey,” Delilah said, walking up to the teen.

“Back off, kid,” Jim told her, pointing a finger right at her, “You can’t be here, this is police business and you’re not even supposed to be here.”

Delilah ignored him and focused on the teen whose eyes were darting back and forth between her and the deputy but also behind them and then around to the door as though he was afraid something would jump out at him if he didn’t keep looking everywhere.

“Hey,” Delilah tried again, brushing off Jim’s remark.  “You said Iris earlier.  She’s one of your friends?”  He was looking everywhere but at her and she snapped her fingers to get his attention.  His eyes were wide and round when they finally found hers; clearly, he was scared out of his wits.  She repeated her question, and he nodded.  Delilah tried to remain calm, but blood was rushing in her ears, screaming at her to go after the monster that had taken Alex.  She forced herself to breathe, reminding herself that this boy’s friend could be anybody, she had to be sure.  “Listen, was there another girl with you?  Long black hair? Blue eyes?”

“Alex?” he supplied, making her stomach drop into her shoes.  Alex.  Something had happened to Alex.

“Do you know what happened to her?”

“She was there, and then the air, and everywhere, just bang and… and …  and the arm.”

“Hey, focus!” she said snapping her fingers again, finding it harder and harder to keep herself calm, “What happened to Alex?”

Jim stood back at this point, his previous glaring disappearing into a worried frown.

“She wasn’t there when… anymore.  She was gone. And Jenna, Lisa…  I—there was so much blood—” he finished in a near whisper, staring blankly ahead.

Jim’s eyes met hers and he nodded at her once, a quiet understanding passing between them: find her.  Then, he stepped between her and the boy to take his official statement.  She stared at Jim’s broad back a moment, stunned by the bone chilling realization and overwhelmed by the implications: it had Alex.


	20. Chapter 20

Matt was becoming more and more aware of how thirsty he had gotten – his throat was dry and his mouth felt like it was lined with cotton.  His whole head felt like it was wrapped in the fluffy white stuff, the cavern back to that uncompromising silence.  He could feel it pressing in on him like a physical weight on his skull.  He lay on the hard stone ground as far away from the pile of bones and puddle of sick as he could get in the small space.  He had turned his back to the empty darkness while he held a hand to the damp stone wall, drawing what little comfort he could get from the simultaneously vast and infinitesimal space that he was trapped in.

The memories of the woman being devoured by what Matt had conjured in his mind as a monster, continued to torment him and he hummed tunelessly to himself to try and keep the screams at bay, raising the volume when the silence got too stifling.  Images of sharp, bloody teeth tearing into flesh swam before his eyes and Kayla took on the role of victim in his mind: her body torn to shreds by the monster.  It seemed more and more likely, now, that she had suffered the same fate as the nameless woman from earlier.  He hummed louder as though the sounds in his throat could banish the images in his head. 

The distant sounds of screaming rang in his ears again and he curled in on himself, the movement causing his ankle to throb painfully.  No matter what he did the screaming was getting louder.  It was not until the yells began to echo around his head that he realized they were not his imagination.

“Let us go, you fucker!” screamed the new voice.

Us?  Matt sat up quickly and turned to face where the voice was coming from.  From above Matt could hear someone struggling; groans and cries of frustration punctuated the angry outbursts of swearing.  A heavy thud, like something hitting the ground made Matt raise himself to his feet warily, careful not to put weight on his throbbing ankle.  His heart was beating a mile a minute as he listened to the sounds of struggling up above him and getting closer.  The girl started to scream and Matt squeezed his eyes shut and slammed his hands over his ears to avoid having to listen as another person was torn and eaten.

Then, a male voice suddenly yelled, “Get away from her!” and Matt heard the dull, heavy sound of two bodies colliding.  For a moment, he thought maybe the man had overpowered it but then he started screaming, a twisted sound of agony and fear.  Before Matt realized what had happened, the body landed on the stone ground near his feet with a sickening crunch.  Matt pushed away from the wall, intending to check on the fallen man, but before he had the chance, he heard the girl’s screams as she was tossed into the crypt as well, landing in the bones with a hollow tinkling followed immediately by another thud and more bones scattering.

Everything was silent and Matt was suddenly afraid that he was now trapped with dead bodies, potentially half-eaten ones at that.  He pressed himself back against the wall, trying not to panic as he heard the scuffling noise above.  “Please, please, please,” he begged under his breath, praying the monster did not decide to come down after them.  The air was filled with the smell of decay, the same smell that had assaulted his senses just before he had been attacked.  Then, the air cleared and he could sense as much as hear that there was nothing standing on the ledge anymore.

Matt let out a shuddery breath, feeling his legs shake from leftover fear and relief.  He heard something stirring to his right, followed by a moan and he realized that whoever they were, someone was still alive.

“Hello?” he whispered, his dry throat hardly choking out the word.

“Who’s there?” came an answer from the dark, the girl still managing to sound belligerent even after being thrown into a dark pit.

“I’m Matt,” he answered, carefully hobbling his way closer to her voice while keeping a hand against the wall for support and trying to avoid the scattered bones and potential bodies.

“Matt?  As in the guy who went missing?”  The girl was shifting bones around, trying to stand up. “I can’t see a damn thing!”

Matt reached out towards where her voice was coming from and he felt her startle at the same time as his hand connected with her.  “Sorry,” he said quickly, “Just, take my hand.”  He felt her fingers brush his palm and then come back and pat at his hand as though searching for it.  He closed his hand around hers and gently pulled her towards where he was standing. “Are you hurt?” he asked her.

“No, just a few scratches.  That thing swiped at me.”  Matt put his other hand on her waist as she nearly toppled from the shifting bones underfoot.  “What was that thing?”

“I don’t know.  It got the jump on me and then I woke up here.  Never really saw it, but it was big.”

They were standing by the wall, Matt staving off the vertigo by laying his hand against it again.

“We have to get out of here.  Before it comes back,” the girl said moving away from him, kicking at the bones littering the way.

“I tried already, the walls are too smooth to climb.”

Matt was suddenly blinded by a bright light and he found himself closing his eyes tightly against the glare.

“Shit!  No signal.”

“Yeah, I tried that too.”

He managed to open his eyes very slightly, shielding them from the light with his hand as though he was trying to stare into the sun.  The blonde girl was standing there staring at the pile of bones and looking blank.  She looked no older than sixteen.  He could now see, in the glare of her cell phone light, that the other two were lying unconscious on the ground.  The boy was older, closer to eighteen.  He was lying on his right arm awkwardly, undoubtedly landing on it when he had been thrown in.  His chest was steadily rising and falling though.  Matt’s survival and first aid training kicked in suddenly and not being in the dark and alone anymore, he could feel his confidence return.  He checked the boy over for any other injuries, feeling the pulse point on his neck carefully.

The light wavered around him as he heard the girl whisper, “Bones… they’re bones.”  He turned around in time to see her drop the phone to the ground as she backed away and flattened herself against the wall.  Matt dove for the phone before the screen could turn off and throw them all into darkness again.  Annoyed with the girl, he turned the light towards where she was now sitting against the wall, her knees to her chest, eyes squeezed shut.

“You gotta keep it together,” he said, maybe a little more harshly than necessary, but he couldn’t stand whiny brats.  “You can’t fall apart now, or we won’t get out of here.”

“Those are bones… bones!”

“Yeah, they’re bones, and right over there is a fucking shrine with like fifty skulls, blondie, so unless you want to become one of them, keep your shit together!”

The girl started shaking and Matt was feeling exasperated.  These kids were going to be absolutely useless.  He had enough troubles on his own with his broken ankle, he didn’t need to take care of a bunch of kids, too.  What a fucking nightmare.


	21. Chapter 21

Delilah clutched her phone in her hand, staring at the disconnection screen and Jody’s name at the top.  She had tried to reach the sheriff, but there was no answer.  She left her a message, telling her in brief clipped words that Alex had been taken by the wendigo, there was a good chance she was still alive, and she was going after it.  She stared at the screen a little longer, her brain throwing worst case scenarios at her and dredging up visuals of Alex, bloody and torn to bits, or screaming as her limbs were ripped from her body, or her blue eyes staring, blank and empty, her chest ripped out.

Suddenly, her brain switched into action mode, her mind clearing of all traces of panic and distraction, her breathing slowing down with her pulse and a quiet, furious determination took her over.  She was going to save Alex.  She felt it in her bones, knew it to be true down to her core.  It was not a question, or even a hope; it was a fact.

She glanced down at her phone again, thinking of calling Garth or Jody or maybe even Sam again, because she needed a surer way to track the monster than just by looking at squiggly lines and guessing where a cave might be.  Then it hit her.

Her phone.

Alex had her phone.

Delilah’s body kicked into motion and she rushed over to Jody’s computer, her fingers scrambling to put in the sheriff’s password.  Her hunting habits had died hard, and when she had first moved in with the sheriff, Delilah had quietly activated the GPS settings on Alex’s – and Jody’s – phones in the event that she needed to find them quickly.  She had never needed to use it though, so it had slipped her mind, until now…

She pulled up the tracking website Sam had shown her all those months back and she put Alex’s phone number in the search bar.

The seconds were torturous as Delilah stared at the dots appearing and disappearing continuously as the tracking software searched for the location of the requested phone.  Her stomach dropped momentarily when the map of the States didn’t zoom in to a location and instead the message box appeared:

 _Not found_.

Delilah shook her head and pursed her lips.  There were a number of reasons that Alex’s phone wouldn’t be detected by a satellite: it could simply be off, or broken, or somewhere with no cell reception, like a cave.  Shaking the dread away, Delilah clicked on the drop-down menu next to the search bar _._

 _Tracking history_.

_Last two hours._

_Display map._

_…_

_…_

_Location found._

Delilah watched as the map slowly zoomed in on South Dakota, then Sioux Falls, then into the woods.  The location dot flashed with the label “ _43_ _°33’12”_ _-96°32’35” - 17:12:06_ ” and Delilah’s eyes dropped down to the time in the bottom right corner of the screen.  _Thirty minutes ago.  The last registered time was thirty minutes ago.  Shit._

Delilah zoomed the map out, trying to find any reference points and found that the coordinates led to a spot in Beaver Creek Nature Area.  The fucker was hiding in a state park.  She could also see from the other two coordinate points that this thing had cut through the thick woods and open fields between a residential development on the south-eastern edge of Sioux Falls and this spot on the banks of Beaver Creek.  And judging from the few points there were, this fucker could really move.

Delilah hit the _“send to my phone”_ link beside the coordinates map and pushed off from the desk hurriedly.  She glanced down at her clothes: mud stained pumps and pant cuffs and her flimsy work shirt.  Time for a wardrobe change.

She hurried into the conference room and grabbed her jean jacket where she had slung it over the chair, her eyes automatically drawn to the pinned map on the board.  She glanced at the pins in and around Beaver Creek, and she couldn’t help but marvel that though this thing lived in proximity to a steady supply of food from hikers, there were no more or less victims taken in that area.  _They are smart, and fast and hunt better than any creature alive.  You watch your back, cuz this thing is cunning._   Well, not cunning enough.  A hundred years of hunting skills is about to be outdone by some modern technology and a seriously pissed off auntie.

She turned around, slinging her jacket onto her shoulders and heading out of the police station, focused, determined and deadly.  It was only once she was outside, staring at the parking lot and scanning the cars there, that she remembered she had no car of her own; Sam’s Dart and Charger were back at the bunker and the Impala was wherever Dean had gotten himself to.  She would have been relieved to see her beat up Rust Bucket at this point.

She let out a frustrated growl, “Damnit!  You don’t go wait for the fucking bus when you’re on a goddamned rescue mission!”

Her eyes ran over the brown sheriff’s department cruisers, all neatly parked and ready for use by a badge carrying cop as she tried to come up with a solution to her problem.  _Take a taxi?_ she half pondered as she approached the cruisers distractedly.  _Wait for Jody?_   she idly thought as she pulled on the handle on the driver’s side of a standard police vehicle.  To her surprise the door opened, unlocked.   _Maybe she could drop in at a car rental agency,_ her brain threw at her in a last-ditch effort to find a solution that did not involve grand theft auto of a police cruiser.  But as she reached up to the visor and the keys dropped into her hands, she figured fate had an eye on her after all, besides, who in their right minds would steal a fucking cop car? Seriously?

She glanced around herself one last time then dropped into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut.  She jammed the key into the ignition and turned the engine over.  Who ever had the cruiser last had left the radio on and she startled at the music coming out of the speakers.  With a wicked smile spreading on her lips she turned the volume up, reversed out of the spot and burned rubber as she squealed out of the sheriff’s station parking lot like she had the law on her ass.

“I’m a real wild child,” she spoke in time to the lyrics, the adrenaline pumping through her body making her giddy.


	22. Chapter 22

Alex came to very slowly, blinking her eyes open, and then again as she adjusted to the dim lighting.  She was lying on something cold and hard, something, or several somethings, poking into her side.  Her head was pounding in her ears, throbbing insistently, and she raised her hand to her forehead and felt the sensitive spot over her eye where she had collided with the stone lining the fire pit.  _How had she hit her head against the stone?_ she wondered, unsure.  Then pieces came floating back and she remembered how they had been attacked by the vampire.

All pain in her head and body faded to irrelevance as she pushed herself to a sitting position, suddenly alert and looking around everywhere.  Her eyes landed right away on the strange man’s back, crouched down over Lukas’s inert body, the pair lit up by a cell phone’s screen.  Her heart pounded in her chest, her throat constricting in fear as panic started to overwhelm her.  She had no idea where she was, but she knew she had to get away from the monster in front of her.

She looked around on the ground for a weapon, something she could use to eliminate or at least incapacitate the vampire while she got away.  She seemed to be surrounded by strange white stones, their surface slightly iridescent in the dim glow from the phone and she picked one up tentatively to see how sharp the edges were.  She was disappointed by how smooth and oddly light it was, only the tip jagged enough to cut, but stabbing a vampire was useless, she knew.

Something about the stone disturbed her and she brought it closer to her face to see better.  She dropped it in horror seconds later as realization dawned about what was in her hand.  She scrambled to her feet wiping her hands on her jeans, and slipping on another bone.  Horror grew in waves as she absorbed the pile that she had been lying in the middle of, the crouching vampire nearby completely eclipsed from her mind.

“Alex?” she heard a soft whisper of a voice say and she turned to look towards its source.

She could barely make out Iris sitting beyond the circle of light and confusion rivalled her need for escape.  She glanced back at the feeding vampire, who seemed to be paying them no heed whatsoever.  He also seemed to be favouring a leg, and Alex decided that there was too much she didn’t understand about the situation.

She made her way towards Iris’s outline, careful not to step on any of the bones strewn on the ground.  She reached her and leaned her hand against the stone wall the blonde was sitting at the base of.  Alex quickly looked up, but the light was too dim to see much of anything above her own head.  She crouched down beside Iris, who had her knees up against her chest and her arms wrapped around them tightly, her chin securely tucked in.  Alex observed her closely: other than a slowly bleeding cut on her leg, the red fluid running down her bare leg, she couldn’t see any injuries on the girl.

“Are you okay?” she asked her softly, laying a hand on her shoulder.  Alex could feel her shaking.

“Bones… they’re bones…” she muttered softly, the tone alien coming from the usually confident Iris.

“Yeah, I know.  Listen, did it bite you?”  Alex tried to examine what skin was visible on her friend, but as far as she could tell, she had no bite marks, only a few scratches and those were barely bleeding.  Alex frowned, blood would have sent the vampire into a frenzy, she knew…. Unless it had more self-control than any of the bloodthirsty vamps she’d ever met.  “Did you see anything?  Do you know what happened?”  Iris didn’t answer, she just kept staring towards the pile.  Alex shifted over and blocked her view, forcing her to look at her, “Iris!” she said, forcefully, “You need to get a grip okay?  I promise we’ll get out of here, but I need you to tell me what happened.”

“It’s no use,” said a voice coming from the crouched shape behind her.  “She lost it when she saw the shit show and now she’s in shock.  You won’t get any help from her.  I’m the only one here trying to save you people.”

Alex did not like his tone, like he was high and mighty and they were useless burdens.  “No one asked you, ass hat,” she said angrily at the monster’s back and she turned back to Iris.  “Focus on me, Iris.  Look at me, can you do that?”

Slowly, the girl’s eyes adjusted and shifted to Alex’s and she encouraged her, praising her.  Iris blinked.  “Alex?” she asked, getting an encouraging smile and further praise.

From behind, Alex heard a deep groan and she turned to see the strange man helping Lukas to a sitting position.  He was clutching his right arm and let out a cry.

“I think your arm’s broken, bro.  I wouldn’t move it around too much.”

Lukas nodded his head and looked around, most likely joining the group in wondering where they were.  Alex looked around quickly again searching for the rest of the people who had been around the fire.  There didn’t seem to be anybody else though.

“Where are Trevor and the girls?” Alex asked.  Lukas looked around at her as the man, who was looking and acting less and less like a vampire, stood up and hobbled over to lean on the wall beside them.  The light bobbed around, the cell phone in his hand.

“I don’t know.  You’re the only ones it dropped into here.”

It dawned on Alex suddenly, that he must be another victim, not the attacking vampire at all.

“Dropped?” Iris asked, seeming to pull herself slowly out of her daze.

“Yeah,” he said, “This seems to be where whatever animal that thing is keeps its food.”  The light suddenly grew brighter as he switched to the flashlight app and shone it around.  Alex’s stomach dropped into her feet as she saw the smooth walls that disappeared up above their heads on all sides.  “There was a little light coming in a while ago.  See where it gets really black all of a sudden?  There’s a ledge there.”  Alex looked at where the light seemed to disappear into inky darkness.  It was way above her head – no way she could reach it even if she jumped.  “I tried climbing up, but my ankle’s broke and I ended up back down in here again.  I’m Matt, by the way.”

“Missing hiker Matt?” asked Alex, startled again.

“Uh, I guess.”

“Dude,” said Lukas, joining them slowly, “You’ve been missing for like three days.”

“Where’s Kayla?  Is she here too?” asked Iris.

Matt stood there silently and looked off towards the pile of bones, a hush descending on their stone prison as Alex understood that some of those bones might in fact be the missing girl’s.

“What the fuck is going on here?” suddenly burst out Iris angrily, finally completely snapped out of her stupor and getting riled up.

“I think we were attacked by a vampire,” Alex tried to say calmly, but she was distracted by the bones.  Vampires didn’t eat flesh, they just sucked blood.

The scoff coming from Matt made her turn around again.  “Vampire?  Are you for real goth girl?  Be serious.  Vampires don’t exist and whatever has us trapped in here is very real.  I’m putting my money on some animal gone rabid.  Maybe a bear, or a cougar.”

“Bear or cougar?  Seriously?” asked Iris shrilly.  “Have you ever heard of a bear or cougar kidnapping people?”

“Hey, I know a hell of a lot more about the animals around here than some dumbass high school kid.”

The argument raged on between Iris and Matt.  Alex tried to block them out enough to concentrate on what to do next.  She looked around at the smooth walls again, the light sweeping back and forth as Matt waved his cellphone holding hand, gesticulating in frustration.  Alex remembered her own phone suddenly, and she pulled it out of her pocket, thankful she had put it there after calling Jody instead of back in her bag.  The small spark of hope fizzled out though when she saw the “no service” in the top right corner of her screen.  Whether they were dealing with a creature or an animal, how would Jody find them if she couldn’t call her?

Her attention was pulled back to the bickering between Iris and Matt and she glanced up at Lukas who seemed to have found the pile of bones and was looking at it grimly holding his right arm against himself gingerly.

“We’re gonna die here,” he muttered under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear.

“No, we’re not,” Alex told him with conviction, feeling herself fill with a determination she had rarely felt in her life.  “We’re going to get out of here.”


	23. Chapter 23

Delilah made it to Jody’s in record time and she rushed into the house shedding her clothes right in the hall, one of her hated pumps kicked off and hitting the wall as she made it into the office.  She quickly unzipped her duffel bag, pulling out her torn skinny jeans, a t-shirt and a black knit sweater she knew hadn’t been this loose last time she had worn it.  She quickly stuck her limbs into the clothes, yanking it in place as her head broke out of the neck hole, hunting through her bag between arms.  She pushed what little clothing she had aside and pulled out her belt, passing it through the loops quickly.  Something glinted in the dim light coming from the hall and Delilah bent down again, pushing a t-shirt aside to reveal the steel barrel of her gun.  She picked it up, cradling it in her hands, the metal cool against her palms as she caressed it lovingly.  A gun wasn’t going to help her though and she put it back down in her bag.  She wrapped her fingers around the black handle of her hunting knife instead.  She pulled it out of the bag and looked at the weapon, still secured in its case.

Not much better, she thought, remembering what Garth had said about blades and wendigos.

She shrugged and held onto it anyways – there were worse things to have in your possession while walking through the woods, than a trusted hunting knife.  To the very least, she could use it to carve up trees as she went.

“Better than bread crumbs,” Delilah said out loud.

She stood up quickly, looking around the floor for her boots, and jammed her feet into them, feeling powerful and unstoppable back in her familiar second skin.

She headed back out into the hall, pulling her blade from its sheath and checking the edge for rust.  She pushed it back in again, satisfied that it was still in good working condition though she hadn’t been taking as good care of it as maybe she should have in the past couple of months.  Garth’s voice nagged her at the back of her head, reminding her that fire was the only useful weapon against a wendigo.

She clipped the knife sideways on her belt, the handle within easy reach of her right hand, then headed into the kitchen and opened cupboard after cupboard searching for something she could use.  In the last cupboard, by the patio doors, she found a bottle of BBQ fluid.  She took it in her hands, another wicked smile on her face.  “Time to Kentucky Fry Chicken this motherfucker.”

She flipped the flat bottle in her hand and then tucked it into her boot, then grabbed a book of matches out of one of the drawers.  Putting it away in her front pocket, she walked back out the front door.  She paused on the door step as she stared at the dark orange line on the horizon; the sky was already a deep indigo blue at the top.  _It’s gonna have a serious advantage in the dark, you read me?_   Well, not much she could do about it.  This had to happen right the fuck now if she wanted any hope of saving Alex.

She moved off the front porch and straight for the police cruiser sitting in the driveway.  She opened the driver’s door and stood and stared at the empty insides a moment, jiggling the car keys in her hand and looking around again at the deep colours of the sky.  She was not properly equipped, and she could hear Dean’s voice in her head, _“A hunter without the proper gear is just a meal waiting to happen.”_

She closed her fist around the keys and made her way to the back of the police cruiser, unlocking the trunk and opening it to see what other useful arsenal the Sioux Falls Sheriff’s Department had unwittingly supplied her with.   She reached for the shotgun sitting so innocently in the trunk beside a box of shells.  She jerked open the double barrel and loaded it, snapping it shut again and jamming a few extra shells into her pockets.  It would not kill it, but maybe it would enough to distract it, should she need a distraction.

She saw the black police issue duffel bag and leaned the shotgun against the back bumper, curious to see if there would be something useful in there.  She unzipped it and found a full roadside assistance kit, complete with a first aid kit, iridescent spray paint, road flares, flags and a few other odds and ends.  Figuring this stuff could definitely come in handy, she grabbed the bag trying not to think about the kind of medical attention Alex could be in need of, as once again gore filled images of the blue-eyed girl scrolled in her mind.

She slammed the trunk shut, picked up the shotgun and opened the driver’s door again.  She put everything down on the passenger’s seat and started the car up.  The glowing light of the navigation system, bright in the gathering gloom of the evening, drew Delilah’s attention.  She pulled her phone out and glanced down at the GPS coordinates she got from Alex’s phone and put them into the cruiser’s system.  Instantly, a map of the area around the coordinates appeared and she tapped the button that would show her how to get there.

The navigation system plotted her route to the closest drivable point and she took a deep breath, pulling out of the driveway, heading for Alex’s last known position.


	24. Chapter 24

Alex turned the light on her phone around the top of the smooth rock wall, trying to stay calm with her blood rushing in her ears and her heart beating in her throat.  Finally, she found the black hole where the wall disappeared and where Matt said he had seen light before.  Matt and Iris were still at each other’s throats and their angry words kept interfering with her thoughts as they echoed around the small space.  “Shut up, alright?” she yelled at them, “We have to get out of here before the vamp comes back.”

“Jesus fucking Christ kid, there’s no such thing as vampires!  This isn’t some teeney swoon novel, this is real life.”

Alex felt the anger bubble up from the pit of her stomach and stomped the couple of strides separating her from where Matt and Iris were standing.  Their arguing had brought them toe-to-toe, the football player bending at the waist and towering over her small frame regardless of her larger-than-life gusto.  Alex yanked her shirt collar aside to reveal the layers upon layers of bite scars from her brothers’ feedings and her voice became an angry whisper.  “There are things out there that happy, normal people like you can’t even imagine.  Horrible things.  Monsters.”

She took a deep breath to try and get a grip on her emotions as Matt raised the phone in his hand and shone the light on Alex’s collar bone.  His eyes were wide, not sure how to process what she was showing him.  Iris’s eyes were locked on her shoulder too and Alex had a moment of worry that she had lost her.  But there was no time to think about that now.  She shrugged her shirt back in place and Iris seemed to snap out of it.

“Hey!  Give that back, creep!”  She swiped the phone out of Matt’s hand and turned the screen and flashlight off, but he swiped it right back and held it out of reach.

“I’m the leader here, so I get to keep the phone.”

“Leader, my ass!  It’s my phone, ass hat!  Give it back!” Iris screeched jumping for it.

“Enough!” Alex yelled again and turned back towards the stretch of wall that had the ledge.  “We’re not going to get out of here if we don’t work together, got it?  Matt, you said you tried to climb the wall.  Do you think you could give one of us a boost?  If you lift us high enough, we can climb out.”

“See?” said Iris, her fists on her hips and glaring at Matt, “ _She_ ’s the leader.”

Matt returned her glare before turning back to Alex, shaking his head in clear disbelief.  “Yeah, I can give you guys a boost, sure, but that leaves me stuck in this hole and you freaks free to run off.”

“We can pull you out once we’re up there, maybe we’ll get lucky and find a rope or something.”

Matt seemed to consider this for a moment looking up at the ledge again.  His answer was slow in coming, the man sounding less than convinced, “Fine,” he said finally, clenching his jaw.

He hobbled over to the wall towards which Alex was aiming her phone light, and she, Iris and Lukas moved in closer as well.  The man felt around the smooth stone, his fingers occasionally gripping near invisible bumps and crevices stepping sideways looking for something Alex couldn’t figure out.

“Alright,” he said finally, looking up towards where the wall stopped and became gaping blackness, “I’ll give you a boost from here.  There are a few raises in the stone that you can push against with your feet to help you over the ledge when you get up there.”

He turned around and leaned back against the wall, bending his knees slightly, still favouring his right leg heavily.

“You gonna be able to support extra weight, with your leg like that?” asked Iris.

“Don’t worry about me,” he answered, his tone barbed.  He slapped his right thigh impatiently, “Come on.  Wanna get out of here.”

Alex handed her phone to Iris so she could light up the sheer wall and then she moved up to the waiting Matt and laid her hands on his broad shoulders.  She hoped fervently that his leg didn’t give out and send her crashing to the stone ground again.  Matt linked his hands together and she put her right foot in them.

“Okay,” said Matt, “When you’re ready, stand on my hands and reach around on the wall for a hand hold.  Then, you’ll need to step up onto my shoulder and from there you should be able to reach the ledge.”

Alex did as she was told, trying to find the hand and foot holds before she would have to actually shift her weight to them, but the wall just looked like tempered glass in this lighting.  She would just have to have faith that she would find them when she needed them.

She laid her hands against the wall to steady herself as she raised her left foot and put it against Matt’s shoulder shakily.  “Ready?” he asked her and all she could do was nod her head.  His voice softened a little, maybe sensing her nervousness.  “I’m going to help raise you up, but you need to shift your weight to my shoulder or else you’ll just fall back.”

It all happened so fast, her brain didn’t have time to process the shift.  She felt him push her foot and she moved to her left foot, straightening out her bent knee like she was just trying to get up a really tall step.  Her hands scraped along the wall as her body went up and she fought the vertigo from raising them above her head, feeling like she was being launched into the wall.  She knew that if she didn’t find something to hold onto by the time she was fully standing on Matt’s shoulder, her momentum would just send her flying backwards.  She felt the tug behind her navel as her leg gave a little and she almost fell back, but then her fingers curled around the ledge and she clung to it to steady herself.


	25. Chapter 25

The wind was rustling quietly through the evergreen treetops, shushing soothingly through the light blue to deep indigo sky, the last traces of the sun’s orange glow gone completely from the horizon.  The deep calm of the twilight woods was incongruous to Delilah as she stepped out of the police cruiser staring as far between the tree trunks as the darkness would let her.  Somewhere within those trees was a creature that once was human but was now no more than any monster.

She knew from the GPS that she still had quite a ways to go on foot before she would reach the coordinates from Alex’s phone.  She left the keys in the cruiser’s ignition but turned off the headlights.  She turned the ringer off on her phone – a call at an inopportune time could be life or death while on a hunt.  She reached into the passenger seat and grabbed the black duffel and the shotgun.  She locked the cruiser’s door and slammed it shut moving to stand between it and the woods, on the verge bordering the long quiet gravel road.

With a determined focus, she slung the duffel’s strap across her shoulders, letting the bag rest in the small of her back, and she took the shotgun in both her hands, feeling the slight tremble in her fingers as she held it against her chest.  She glanced around herself again, feeling the oppressive darkness of the cooling evening weighing down on her as she stood alone at the side of a deserted country road.  What she wouldn’t give to have a Winchester at her side right now, good, bad and everything in between.  She looked up at the sky one last time before it would disappear beyond the branches of the tall trees and she saw the first of the stars peppering the darkness.

“Please,” she whispered to the star dust, “Give me the strength to do this.”

The cool quiet breeze picked up and made the treetops sway again as the scent of pine sap filled her nose, bringing her back to that evening long ago, kneeling on Jody’s cabin porch, the pines overwhelming then too as Dean held her in his arms, chasing away her fears and concerns about what the mark had started to do to him.

Delilah shook herself, feeling her anger sparking again as she thought about what Dean had gone on to do to her afterwards.  He had been very clear.  It had all been a charade, using her because she had simply been convenient: nearby and willing… mostly.

Well there was one other thing she could remember from her time in the pines…  They had saved Alex that day.  And if Delilah had not been there, Alex, Jody, Sam and even fucking Dean would have become vampire chow.  Delilah stood up straighter and held the shotgun more comfortably in her arms. _Don’t, for a second, think that you are not a damn good hunter, okay?  ‘Cause you are._

“Damn right I am,” Delilah answered quietly to the Sam in her head.

She shifted the shotgun to her right hand, holding it around the grip, her index along the wood grain above the trigger, the heel of the stock tucked against her shoulder, and took her phone out of her pocket.  She pulled up the coordinates she had sent to herself on her locator app.  She glanced down at it and slowly turned until the dot was dead center on her phone and pointing her the right way.  She looked up and into the dark woods and stepped steadily forward between the tree trunks.

The light suddenly dimmed and nearly died barely a few feet into the treeline and all the noises disappeared, a preternatural hush descending upon the woods.  Where were the snuffles and hoots of the nocturnal animals?  The snap of a twig under her boot startled her and her heart jumped in her chest, suddenly beating loudly in her ears and she rested her fist holding her phone against a nearby tree trunk.  She rubbed her hand on the rough bark, re-centering herself, taking deep breaths.  She glanced behind her and realized that she could just barely make out the cruiser in the distance where the road was still lit by the growing light of the moon and stars.

Delilah began to worry; would the GPS be enough for Jody to find her later?  Even if they track the cruiser to where it is now… she had quite the trek in the woods to do. She straightened again and looked at the trees that seemed to be closing in on her.  Forcing the mind tricks away, she swung the shotgun onto her shoulder by the strap, tucked her phone back into her pocket and pulled the duffel forward, so she could rummage through it.  Her hand quickly found the metal cannister she knew held the spray paint to mark up scenes of accidents and such.  As she pushed the contents of the bag around, her hand also butted against something long, cold and smooth and recognition pulled at her with relief.  She closed her fingers around the spray can and drew it out of the bag, tucking it into her armpit and diving back in for the Maglite.  With a quick sigh, she clicked it on and then swept the light beam around the woods, casting eerie shadows all around her, but also banishing the darkness of the night from her immediate surroundings.

Satisfied that nothing more threatening than a splinter was lurking, she took the cannister, slung the bag back around and took a step away from the tree she had just been leaning against.  With a shake of the plastic bead in the pressurized paint can, she marked up the smooth bark with an X, the paint catching and reflecting the light from her flashlight.

She turned around again, looking one last time at the parked cruiser, and hoped that the X would catch someone’s attention and that the trail would be found easily.  Then, she turned away, back to the dark, quiet woods and once more she moved ahead, tucking the can into the duffel’s side pocket for easy access.  She kept the flashlight in her hand, preferring, for the moment, the comfort of light to the false security of the shotgun.  She pulled her phone back out of her pocket, and aligned the dot on the map once more, and pushed deeper into the woods.

She fell into a rhythm, forcing one booted foot in front of the other, the urgency of the situation driving her forward, the sense of danger increasing with every step.  She marked a tree every so often, idly wondering if she was marking the path for someone to back her up, save her, or retrieve her body.

Delilah paused again, taking a shaky breath as her skin crawled and shivered.  She had no time for those kinds of thoughts, she chided herself.  The only thing that mattered was saving Alex.

Images paraded in her head once more, the darkness of the woods around her doing nothing to help dispel them and bloody images of Alex moved in on her from all sides: Alex’s clear blue eyes staring blindly forward; her body sprawled on the forest’s leafy ground; blood, mass amounts of blood.  A few steps more and this time Alex was torn limb-from-limb.  Delilah kept going and soon memories mixed with her imagination and it was Dean resting at the foot of a tree, his head at an odd angle and she had to supress a shocked sob.  She closed her eyes a second and took a few more steps, leaning her hand against a nearby tree to steady herself, and when she opened her eyes again it was Sam, sitting back against the tree, his wrists torn open and draining his blood into buckets on the ground.

“Goddamnit, Delilah!” she said to herself angrily, “If you’re going to do this, then fucking do it!  All this shit is going to do is get you killed.”

She shook herself one last time and stepped forward, holding her flashlight in her right hand, the phone in her left directing her feet towards Alex.  The images disappeared around her finally with the next few steps she took, and she started to feel more sure of herself.  Delilah kept her eyes locked on the woods around her, what she could see of it in the light of her flashlight, and glanced down at her phone regularly, checking her bearings to make sure she was still headed for the dot on her screen.  She took a moment to mark another tree, then stuck the paint back into the duffel on her back.

She moved off again, continuing on her way, when suddenly her skin crawled, a feeling of dread tinkled like icy water down her back and she held her breath as she looked around, pointing the flashlight between trees.  The beam disappeared in the darkness, not landing on anything that didn’t belong there, but she was being watched, she could feel it.  She took another step and a snap sounded loud and echoed in the stillness and she dropped her phone, bringing the gun up to her shoulder and sticking the flashlight to the barrel as she swung it around looking for the source of the noise.

Her breathing was heavy and her skin crawled and she turned again, certain the dark woods had eyes on her.  Another branch cracked in the night’s stillness and Delilah jumped, spinning around to aim the light at it.  There was nothing there and she slowly turned in a circle, scanning the depth of the woods slowly as her heart beat in her throat, nearly choking her with her own fear, expecting the monster to jump out at her with every new inch she lit up.

When nothing continued to show itself, Delilah shakily lowered the gun, slinging it behind her shoulder again as she bent down to pick up her phone. She moved on, the muscles of her legs starting to shake and twitch like they were itching to run straight back out of those woods and far away.  Her ears were now picking up thousands of tiny clicks and chitters always just outside the scope of the light when she aimed it their way.  Shadows jumped at her with every swing of her heavy flashlight.  The movements in her periphery became threats she could not stop.  The visions from before harassed her again and startled her from the darkest parts of her own mind, dead Alex, Sam, Dean and even Jody fading from her sight as she turned the light on the spots where they appeared.  She quaked inside, her very lungs shaking with each breath and she couldn’t help feeling that all she wanted was for him to be there with her, so that she wouldn’t have to run point, so she wouldn’t have to be alone in these woods where the monsters were stalking her every move and where her loved ones could be killed at any moment and it would be all her fault for not saving them in time.

The trees began to thin and grow further apart, allowing some of the moonlight to filter down and Delilah startled, staring at her phone’s screen and then around herself feeling like she had missed something.  According to her phone, this was where Alex’s last GPS coordinates had registered.  She looked around again, trying to see what made this place any different from the rest of the forest floor and not seeing any hillocks or cliffsides that would allow for a natural cave formation like where she and Garth had suspected the wendigo had its lair.

She looked down at her phone screen again and switched off the app, her bright wallpaper making her wince slightly as she checked the time.  It was going on 8:00 pm.  She had been in the woods about an hour and she still had no call or text from Jody.  Leaves rustled behind her and she grabbed the shotgun again, her phone falling to the ground and she swung around to face whatever was stalking her.  Too late, she realized, she was blinded by her phone, the imprint of her screen all she could see in front of her and she tried to blink it away catching shapes out of the corner of her eye, but seeing nothing but the bright rectangle on her corneas as she turned to look at them dead on.

A disturbing thought suddenly hit her as she realized that maybe Alex could be fumbling around in the woods looking to get away from the wendigo.  Jumpy as she was at the moment, she was just as likely to shoot her as she was to shoot the creature.  With slight nausea, she closed her eyes and lowered the shotgun.  This close to the still hidden den, she couldn’t take the chance that she might shoot one of the captive victims.  The shotgun was useless anyways, she reminded herself as she clicked the safety back on and leaned it against a nearby tree.

She grabbed the paint can out of her bag and sprayed the trunk as well as a few other close trees to clearly show this was her destination.  The last of her cell phone’s light left her sight completely and she looked around.  The light from the flashlight was bouncing brightly off the tree trunks, but causing the contrasting shadows to be that much more impenetrable.  She had the sudden sinking feeling that if this thing was in the shadows, waiting, her flashlight was a direct beacon to her location, might as well have a bright neon sign that said “Self-serve dinner”.

Delilah switched it off, for a moment standing in the darkness, feeling its depth suffocating her as it moved in, no longer kept at bay.  It took all she had in her not to pass out from the fear swelling in her once more or turn the flashlight back on.  She backed up against a tree, feeling like the bark at least could keep her safe and she closed her eyes, taking breaths as deep as her shaky lungs would allow.  Slowly, she counted to ten, lights and liquid night playing behind her eyelids, her mind conjuring movement and vague images up from her need to see something, anything.

She quietly whispered ten under her breath and forced herself to open her eyes, half expecting to see the wendigo right there in front of her ready to say boo, but what she saw instead was the trees in her immediate proximity, and beyond them to the right, more light filtering down from the cloudless night sky.  There was nothing out of place in the quiet woods and she finally got a handle on herself again.  She reached behind her, wrapping her hand around the handle of her hunting knife, suddenly remembering that she had brought it along.  She pulled it out of its sheath on her belt and instantly felt a little reassured, courage flooding back in, the weight and feel of the handle so familiar in her grip.

She started scanning the area more closely, her knife held tightly in her fist, but relaxed at her side, looking for what could have caused Alex’s phone to stop transmitting her location.  She kicked aside some of the leaves and needles covering the forest floor, looking for maybe a broken phone, as she moved closer to where the moonlight was strongest.

Her ears picked up the quiet burbling of a stream nearby and she remembered that Beaver Creek ran close to the coordinates.  She was close.  She had to be.  Delilah moved in the direction of the water and suddenly the trees disappeared, and the landscape opened up in front of her.  She found herself grabbing hold of a small birch tree beside her as her foot slipped and she found herself standing at the very edge of a steep escarpment.  The ground ended suddenly, and the cliff was a steep slope down to the creek banks and the quickly running water a good fifty feet below.

She frowned as her eyes caught something that drew her attention.  She focused on the spot, scanning the area below her to see if she would see it again, seeking confirmation that her mind was not still playing tricks with her.  When she saw it again, she knew what she had to do.


	26. Chapter 26

The world stopped tilting as she paused, trying to not panic as the dimly lit cave swerved sickeningly around her.  She pressed against the wall trying to forget she was standing on Matt’s shoulder, his large hands holding her calves.  “Move goth girl,” he said with a strain, “I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold you like this.”

Alex forced herself to feel around with her hands, trying to find something she could hold onto more securely, but she couldn’t reach anything.  She’d have to try and find one of those foot holds Matt talked about.  She pulled her right foot away from him, feeling him wobble as he adjusted to the weight shift and moved both hands to her left leg.  She found an irregular bump in the rock that she could push against with the toe of her shoe.  With more strength than she knew she possessed and helped by Matt who stabilized her foot by raising it above his head, she shifted her weight to the wall, her elbows bending as her head came up above the ledge.

She stretched out her arms along the gritty floor and gripped a sharp break in the stone.  She spared a quick glance at her surroundings, but other than a faint light wrapping around a curved stone wall, the darkness gave none of its secrets away and she focused back to her current endeavour.

“You okay, Alex?” she heard Iris call out to her.  Alex choked out a reply and started looking for another foothold she could use to push against.  She felt very grateful to Matt as he guided her foot to help her.

One more push and she was able to bend her torso over the edge of the rock and pull herself far enough to roll away from the hole that had been keeping her and her friends captive.

“What’s it look like up there?” came a quiet voice.  Lukas was still sounding shell shocked.

Alex looked around but could see nothing in the immediate pitch blackness, the light from the cell phone not making it past the edge of the hole in the ground.  She could feel, the cool night breeze coming in from the lighted edge of the space, though, and she was hopeful that when everyone was up there, they would be able to find a way out.

Something in the darkness stirred disconcertingly around her and she narrowed her eyes to try and pierce the night, but to no avail.  It was probably just the breeze moving some dead leaves, she reasoned.

“Guys!  Can we hurry this along?  Whatever this thing is, it could be back any minute,” Alex called down softly into the glow of the hole.

“Alright, Blondie,” she heard Matt say with an echo, “Your turn.”

Alex lay back down on the ground and pulled herself close to the edge to look down at Iris scaling Matt like she had done.  Lukas was now holding the phone, lighting the way for them.  After a quick scuffle, Iris was reaching for the ledge and Alex locked arms with her to steady her.  Together, Alex pulling and Iris scraping her toes on the rock surface, the blonde made it over the side and rolled onto her back catching her breath.

“Okay…. Let’s agree to never do that again, alright?” she said.

“Deal,” Alex answered sitting back, her legs bent to the side.

“Hey!  We’re not done here!  Let’s fucking move.  I’m gonna need help with this one,” yelled up Matt.

Iris looked at her, barely visible in the darkness, and took a deep breath.  She pulled Alex’s cell phone out of her back pocket and turned on the flashlight again, putting it down so the light would brighten the area, bouncing off the uneven ceiling and walls.  Matt must be using Iris’s phone below.  The girls lay down side-by-side and stretched their arms down into the hole, ready to help catch Lukas coming up the wall.  It was clearly much more difficult for him to climb, between his busted arm and Matt getting more tired – the previously arrogant asshole didn’t even have enough energy to berate the girls anymore – but the four of them were animated by an undefined sense of urgency, a foreboding looming over their heads as the longer there was no sign of the creature that had left them there, the closer they felt they were to it coming back.

The leaves rustled again, and Alex thought she heard a scraping sound, though she couldn’t tell where it was coming from in the darkness.  She whispered in a strained voice to the others and a focused panic settled over all of them as they scrambled to get Lukas out of the hole.  Alex pulled on his good arm when it reached her, and Iris hooked hers around his other shoulder and armpit to avoid the broken bones.  Matt pushed from below and with a heave and a groan, Lukas was lying on the ground at the edge of the hole.

“What was that?” Iris suddenly said, her eyes round in terror as she looked into the darkness, the phone’s light unable to pierce it from where it lay on the ground.  Iris grabbed it and started moving it around the cavern, the light bouncing around the uneven walls and ceiling and bouncing off reflective minerals in the dull stone.

Alex’s heart jumped into her throat, what could they do? There was no way they could hide from the vampire, it would be able to smell their fear slicked skin from far away, but they had to do something.  The need to run or hide filled her completely and Alex grabbed the phone from Iris and aimed it around the ground.  There, against the far wall, there seemed to be a natural outcropping of rocks, jutting at an angle and just large enough to hide them from immediate sight.

“There,” Alex whispered, pointing to the irregularity.

“What’s happening?” called out Matt from his stone prison below, and Alex felt terrible about leaving him behind, but no one would be saved from the lurking monster if they delayed any more and so, without a word, Alex, Lukas and Iris scrambled for the less-than-adequate, but only hiding place and turned off the light.

The thick, shroud-like air wrapped them tightly together, their arms around each other as they listened to Matt’s choked and desperate cries, the only light now shining over the lip of the stone hole and dissipating, unable to penetrate beyond.  Soon Matt’s cries died down to a dull whine like a hurt, abandoned dog.

Alex found herself hoping, a little cruelly, that the light and his noises would attract the creature’s attention and allow for them to escape.  She felt sick to her stomach and wished they’d had more time, but he would be their salvation.

There was another scrape, and a rustle, and this time the breeze played around with Alex’s hair, and she knew that the darkness of the cave led out into the darkness of the night and they would be okay, if they can just get past whatever was coming.  Minutes stretched into eternity and Iris clung to her, trembling like one of the rustling leaves.

More scrapes rebounded around the dark cave and Alex knew, without a shred of doubt, that whatever it was, it was in there with them.  She stared blindly ahead, her eyes wide, too scared to close them, preferring to see what was going to come for her.  She felt Iris’ arms squeeze her tightly around her waist and she tried to squeeze her shoulder in a poor attempt to comfort the terrified girl, though she knew that there was little anyone could do.

Another soft shuffle, this time much closer, and Matt’s voice rang out in a startling yell of desperation and fear that bounced around the cavern walls, “Don’t leave me here!  Please.”  His voice died back down to a keening sob and suddenly the air, the space, the walls lit up brightly making Alex wince and throw herself back flat against the wall, Iris whimpering against her and Lukas’s hand digging into her arm.

Alex wondered, the thought popping into her head: why would a vampire need light?  But just then, she heard the most unlikely sound.  One that confused her so much, she couldn’t understand nor place it in a context that made sense, because how?  Coming from close to where the hole opened up and held the pit of bones and poor Matt, she had heard… her name.

Realization came crashing down on her as hope filled her up so quickly and completely that she forgot to be scared and threw herself forward to look around the edge of the outcropping rocks.  She saw a familiar figure bent over the edge of the hole and holding a flashlight.  “Delilah!” she exclaimed quietly as she scrambled from Iris’s hold to rush over to her, throwing herself at the hunter’s neck in complete and utter relief.


	27. Chapter 27

“Oh, thank fucking Christ, Alex,” Delilah sighed against the teenage girl’s hair as she held her tightly.  She pushed her away just as quickly, holding her by the shoulder and running the flashlight over her body.  “Are you hurt?” she asked the teen urgently.

Alex shook her head left and right, her eyes wide, “No, nothing serious. Just a few scratches.”

Delilah nodded, and movement caught her attention, drawing her eyes and the flashlight away from Alex’s too wide eyes and towards the two others emerging from behind a part of the wall that was jutting out, concealing them before.  The girl was looking a little worse for wear, her chin length white blonde hair in complete disarray and blood running down her bare leg from a cut on the side of her knee.  The boy was tall, wearing torn jeans and a jacket, but he was clutching his arm, holding it against his middle, his face white as a sheet.  Alex turned around too, and Delilah could just see the side of her face pulled in a wide smile as she spoke to the others.

“It’s cool guys!  We’re gonna be okay now.”

Delilah swallowed hard, she couldn’t believe the complete faith Alex had in her abilities to keep these three battle worn teens from monster unknown.  Delilah looked around quickly, struck by the urgency of the situation and the knowledge that as long as that thing was still out there, they were not out of the woods yet.  As though to cement this idea, suddenly the voice she had heard before, what had made her turn on the flashlight in the first place, called out again drawing her attention, and she startled slightly, knowing that if the wendigo was out there, it would hear him too.

“Please!  Please, don’t leave me down here!  Get me out!”

Delilah tilted the flashlight down over the edge of the jutting ledge in front of her and she barely had a second to spare the brightly lit up pile of bones before she spotted the boy, pressed against the wall, his arms stretched high above his head and clinging to the sheer plane of stone, his fingers bleeding like he had tried to claw his way through it.

“We’re going to get you out of there, but I need you to stay quiet, alright?” she whispered to him urgently.

The man in the hole nodded his head, clearly beyond arguing with her.

“Is it out there?  The vampire?” asked the blond girl, quietly, looking scared out of her wits.

Delilah frowned.  “It’s not a vampire, but yeah…  It could be out there.”

She moved away from the ledge, crouching down to put the flashlight on the ground.  She called Alex over as she opened the duffel bag.  “Anyone else left down there?” she asked her.

“No, Matt’s the only one.”

Delilah glanced around her at the two youths standing to the side looking hurt, bedraggled and scared.  The girl didn’t fit the description for the missing hiker, and certainly not a woman in her sixties.  “Here,” Delilah said, handing the girl the first aid kit, “See if your friends can fix themselves up with what’s in here.”

Alex looked for a moment like she was going to argue with her, her eyes filled with unasked questions, but then she grabbed the kit from Delilah’s hands and walked hurriedly over to the two teens, the girl trembling from cold or fear, she did not know.  She dove back into the duffel and pulled out the length of rope she had used to steady her climb down the sheer embankment and to the cave opening.  She had spotted it in the dark when a dim light had shone from the narrow opening, earlier, like a beacon.

She glanced around herself looking for somewhere she could wrap the rope to give her better leverage to help the missing hiker out of there.  Staying low to the ground, she leaned over the edge again, noting that the place where the floor dropped away was worn smooth, which was good news for the rope. She tried to get a good look at the man in the pit, but from her top angle, it was hard to gauge if she was even physically capable of pulling him out.  “So, you’re Matt?” she asked him as she made a bowline knot into the end of the rope, so he could put his foot in the loop.

“Yeah,” he answered in a hushed tone.

“Okay, Matt.  I’m gonna toss you the end of this rope, but you’re going to need to help me because I can’t lift you out of there.  You’re going to have to climb got it?”

“Delilah,” Alex said coming back to her as she dropped the tied end of the rope over the edge.  “His ankle’s busted up pretty bad.  I don’t know if he can climb out like we did.”

“Hey goth girl,” came Matt’s voice from below, “If you guys can hold me steady, I can make it, alright?”

Delilah raised her eyebrow at Alex as the girl rolled her eyes dramatically.  “Alright then,” she said, “Alex you come and help me steady him on this end.  Matt, you tell me when you’re ready and we’ll pull on the rope to help you up.”

Delilah sat down on the stone ground not too far from the hole, but far enough to react if she started to slip towards it.  As she settled herself in, leveraging her booted feet against the uneven floor and rock wall, Alex grabbed the loose end of the rope and spoke in hushed tones.  “What are we dealing with?  You sure it’s not a vamp?” she asked her, a note of fear sneaking past her nonchalant tone.

“Not a vamp, wendigo.”

Alex nodded her head, and it was hard to tell if she fully understood what they were up against, or if she was just relieved it wasn’t vampires.  Delilah tried to come up with comforting words for her, but the adrenaline pumping through her system was making that kind of thought hard to summon.  One problem at a time, and right now, the problem could be showing up any minute.  Delilah settled herself in position and waited for Matt’s weight to pull against her.

“Okay…” Alex said, looking dead serious, “How do we kill it?”

Delilah sighed, she hadn’t wanted to tell Alex, but maybe it would be best for her to know in case…  She glanced at the sheer determination in the girl’s face and remembered that at one time, those wide blue eyes had knowingly lured unwitting victims to a vampire nest, “BBQ, extra crispy,” she said, knowing she could take that kind of knowledge, but she needed to be clear that this was not her fight, “but you let me take care of that, okay?  As soon as we get Matt out of that hole, you and your friends get out of here.  Follow the river, it’ll take you back to the base camp for the park.  Soon as you’re clear, get to a phone and get Jody out here, alright?”

“Delilah, I can help.”

“Yes, you can, by keeping you and your friends safe so I don’t have to worry about you guys and I can deal with this thing.  Got it?”

Just then, the rope tensed in warning, and Delilah turned away from the flash of relief on Alex’s delicate features and back to the task at hand, bracing her feet against the sudden weight at the end of the rope and gripping it tightly so it wouldn’t slip.  Alex helped her keep the rope steady.  From the hole, they heard Matt’s voice call out to pull and they braced themselves again and pulled the rope taut, supposedly helping Matt to scale the wall, though they couldn’t see.  When he told them to stop, they held the rope steady again, waiting for the next cue to pull.  When it came, they fed the rope to each other, one hand over the other until they saw first one hand, and then another claw over the edge of the hole.  One more strained tug brought his head and shoulders into view; his hands looking for something to grab onto.  The boy from before, his right arm now pinned to his chest with a bandage, reached down to him with his left hand.  Matt clasped it at the wrist and allowed him to pull him further out while Alex and Delilah kept the rope taut.  When his hips were above the broken line of the pit, he turned himself over and sat on the lip, looking relieved.  Alex let go of the rope and made her way to Matt as he shook the now loose loop from his good foot.

Delilah watched as they gathered around him to help him up, Alex reaching for the first aid kit and rummaging through it.  The blonde girl made her way towards where she had left the open duffel bag.  It was easy to get lost in the complete and utter relief of the moment, feeling like they had accomplished something, but Delilah, refused to become complacent.  She knew that this was just one step on a danger ridden road to get these kids to safety before they all became monster chow.

“So, you a cop too?  Like Alex’s mom?”

Delilah turned her head to the side as the blonde girl came to stand beside her, asking her question in a sharp, slightly higher tone than Alex’s voice.  Delilah started coiling the rope around her arm as she thought about that for a moment, unable to help the smiling twitch in her lip, hearing this girl she assumed was Iris, refer to Jody as Alex’s mom.

“Not a cop,” she said finally, “I’m a hunter.  I track down and kill evil sonsabitches that attack my friends and family.”

Delilah glanced sideways at the girl to gauge her response, the teen had her eyebrows halfway up her forehead and her eyes stretched wide, “Damn.  That’s freaking brutal.”  Delilah could barely contain the side smile at the comment as she turned and dropped the rope back into the duffel bag.  “Do you know what happened to the rest of my friends?” the girl asked, in a quiet, scared tone as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at the cavern floor.

Delilah swallowed hard, “Tall kid with red hair came bursting into the station earlier and told me you had been attacked,” she answered.

“Trevor’s okay,” Iris said with a relieved sigh, “What about Jen and Lisa?” she asked, refocusing her attention.

Delilah didn’t know how to answer that, remembering the boy’s horror laden tale of blood and something about an arm.  She shook her head, “I don’t know.”

The girl nodded absently, the look in her eyes becoming guarded, and moved forward, picking up the flashlight from the floor distractedly.  She joined the group of survivors, helping Matt to his feet and bracing him.  Delilah made to gather the duffel bag again and get everyone moving and out, when suddenly she felt something sharp dig into her shoulder a bare second before the floor dropped out from under her feet and the wind whistled in her ears.  Her stomach flipped as she was yanked and tossed out of the cave, her mind absently registering the star-studded night sky before she hit the creek water with a startling splash.

The momentum brought her to the bottom of the rushing water where the river bed stopped her completely with an impact that rattled her whole body.  Her head hit something hard, light bursting behind her closed eyelids as water closed over her face and filled her nose and throat with cold, silty creek water.  She came up quickly, sputtering and coughing, crab crawling out on the other side of the creek.  She had strands of wet hair clinging to her face, and her hands sank deeply into the soft mud of the bank, as she looked up towards the cave mouth.  A shock went through her as she realized how small it looked: this thing had tossed her at least thirty yards away.

Snapping out of her surprise she scrambled to her feet.  She managed to unclip her machete but not pull it from the scabbard before she was slammed into again.  The wind was knocked out of her as she landed on her stomach on the rockier verge along the creek.  She jumped to her feet again, ignoring the deep ache in her chest, and turned around, ready for anything.

The smell hit her before she saw it; a putrid, rotting meat smell that made her swallow down her sudden nausea.  Then, seeming to materialize out of thin air, it was there, standing still and ashen in front of her.  She tilted her head back, and then further still, looking up the impossibly tall, humanoid shape in front of her, the skin pale grey and looking moist and rotted in some places and dry and peeling in others, its rib cage visible under its chest, its stomach sunk in towards its spine.  She looked up high still, into the sunken eyes of the monster that shone with a light reflected from God knows where, and she knew, without a doubt, that this was how she would die.


	28. Chapter 28

“Delilah!” Alex screamed, rushing over to the cavern entrance through which the monster had appeared like a grey pallid shadow, without a sound, bringing with it the smell of death.  It had disappeared, as fast as a finger’s snap, and Delilah was just gone, the hunter barely getting a startled yelp out before everything was quiet.

They were frozen to the spot, everything happening so fast, their brains hadn’t caught up yet.  And then the sound of a splash and Alex rushed towards the cave entrance.  She came to a scrapping halt as the ground dropped away suddenly, opening out of the cliff wall.  She fell back onto her ass from her sudden stop and she raked the night with her eyes, looking for Delilah.  The soft breeze was constant at the mouth of the cave and her eyes slowly adjusted to the moon’s glow shining down on the clearing made by the rushing spring creek, glimmering in the soft light.

Iris and Lukas drew up beside her and Iris dropped down to her knees, laying her hands on Alex’s shoulders.  Matt hobbled up a moment later, toting the forgotten duffel.  They watched in muted amazement for a moment as the small, wiry hunter squared off against the huge, pale grey creature in the moonlight, her shoulders back as she looked it in the face fearlessly.

“Jesus, Alex.  She’s a badass,” whispered Iris in awe.

“Yeah,” was all Alex could think of saying as she saw the creature disappear then slam into Delilah sending her flying into the muddy bank of the creek again.  “We have to help her!” she said, standing up again, determined to launch herself out the cave and to Delilah’s rescue.

Lukas’s hand on her shoulder pulled her back from her precarious position on the cliff’s edge.  “Alex, we have to get out of here.  Could be our only chance.  While it’s distracted.”

She felt the sickening lurch in her stomach again, realizing she had been willing to use a near stranger as bait just like that a few moments before when she thought it would be distracted by Matt’s calls for help.  She glanced at him guiltily, trying to reason that Lukas was right.  Delilah would either take care of the wendigo or would distract it long enough for them to get away.  Anger and fear and guilt swam and mingled inside her and she could feel a tear roll down her cheek as her mind was pulled every which way.  She did not want to lose her family.

“Time to go, guys,” Matt said as he hobbled to them.  Iris tilted the flashlight down across Alex towards the sheer wall-like cliff.  The sudden brightness seemed to pull her back from her panic and she looked into the blonde’s terrified eyes.  She wouldn’t be doing Delilah any favours by getting them or herself killed.  She banished the sounds of the fight from her mind and turned her focus to the cliff itself.  Lukas was bending over the edge too, assessing the escape route.

“I think we can probably get down safely enough if we just slide down the side.  Might get scraped, but it’s the fastest way.”

Matt looked over the edge, holding the wall by the opening.  “I won’t be able to control the slide, not with my leg busted up.”

“Can use the rope,” Lukas said, holding his injured arm against his chest and grinding his teeth.

“Whatever we’re doing, we need to do it now,” Alex said, looking towards where Delilah last was and realizing neither she nor the Wendigo were in sight.

The four jumped into action mode, and Alex and Iris looped the rope around themselves and sat on the cave floor again, bracing their feet against the stone like Delilah had done helping Matt out of the hole.  Matt gave them a tight-lipped smile and sat down, his legs dangling along the steep slope.  Lukas sat beside him and then lowered himself over the side, holding on with his good arm.  He disappeared from sight and Matt followed, the rope becoming taut and pulling the girls forward.  Alex held on tightly, trying to control Matt’s slide down the hill by slowly feeding the rope to Iris.  It finally went slack barely a minute later, though it felt like time had stopped, the moment stretching on interminably, the sounds of slithering scrapes loud in the absence of other sounds in the night and conspicuous to Alex: what had happened to Delilah and the wendigo?

Dread filled her and made her skin crawl in aversion.  “Not again,” she thought as she watched Iris free herself of the rope and crawl to the edge of the stone shelf to follow the boys down the slope.  She looked back towards Alex, who couldn’t remember how to breathe suddenly.

“Alex!” Iris said in a strained voice, “Come on!  We gotta get out of here, now!”

Her mind snapped back to the present need to survive, and she caught sight of Delilah’s duffel bag sitting on the ground.  Without thinking about why, she grabbed the handles in one hand, took Iris’s hand in her other one and together they scooted over the edge and down the slope.  The fall wasn’t long, but enough for her stomach to float into her lungs as her jean clad legs scraped along the leaf strewn ground and she landed in the soft muck of the creek’s silty banks.

She turned to follow Iris and the boys but suddenly found herself with her hands buried in the mud staring at Iris’ scrapped and dirt streaked bare legs, a stray leaf stuck to the skin.  Iris grabbed her arm and pulled her back to her feet quickly and they took off, catching up to Matt and Lukas who were moving as fast as they could, three-legged race style, Matt’s arm hooked around Lukas’ shoulders for support.


	29. Chapter 29

Delilah pulled herself to her feet, feeling the tell-tale ache in her chest.  She managed to get up the bank and into the trees on the other side of the creek from the cave, trying to draw it away from the kids as they escaped.  At least she hoped they had enough sense to get the hell out of there.  She straightened up, leaning against a wide tree and looking around for the creature.  Every rustle of a leaf or sway of a branch became the wendigo as she tried to catch her breath with constricted lungs.  Cracked rib, maybe two she realized.

She turned to look around the tree towards the cave and was relieved to see the beam of light skittering around the cliffside.  They were making their escape.  But the wendigo would go after them if she didn’t keep it distracted.  Feeling the deep exhaustion from hitting her head, and clutching at her throbbing ribs, she pulled her knife from its place on her belt and stepped out from behind the tree.

“Come on!” she screamed into the night, the voice bouncing along the bubbling creek.  “Let’s dance fucker!  I haven’t got all night here!”

She doubled over, feeling the strain on her lungs from calling out.

She heard the too quick steps of the wendigo on the leaf strewn ground as it ran by her, sounding like someone munching on corn flakes, and she straightened up holding her blade ready and turning towards where the steps had gone.  She could see nothing there and suddenly her hair stood on end and her body tensed.  She swung around, flipping the knife so the blade lined up with her arm and she slashed high, guarding her face.  She felt the blade slice into something as the echo of the once human but now monstrous wendigo sounded all around her.

She heard the foot steps again and this time she didn’t bother turning towards their retreating sound, knowing it was just a ruse because this thing could be as quiet as it wanted.  If she heard it, it’s because it wanted her to.  She swung around fast, holding the machete aloft and hoping to connect with the creature again.  She felt the impact on her arm as it knocked the blade from her hand with a blow.

The creature’s abnormally long fingers wrapped around her neck and lifted her off the ground, her back slamming against a tree as it shoved her against it.  She pulled at its superhuman grip with her feeble hands, scratching at the papery, grey skin and she kicked at whatever she could reach, the impacts barely registering with the thing holding her at arm’s length.

It screamed.  An angry, terrifying, screech that went on for a minute and paralyzed her from the shock of the sound mixed with its putrid breath.  She was transfixed by the thing’s sunken face, the grey palid skin stretched tight on its skull, not a hair left on it anywhere that she could see.  Its teeth were pointed and sharp with elongated canines like a wolf; teeth designed to tear into flesh and pick bones clean.  It brought its face close to hers and all she could smell was that terrible rot and she turned her head as far away from it as possible.

She lined her leg up in a last-ditch effort to get the thing to drop her, half reasoning and half reflex guiding her as she swung with all her might right between its legs.

The thing’s only reaction was to pull her away from the tree and slam her back against it, the bark tearing through her shirt and into her skin.

This wasn’t working, and soon the thing would get bored with her and either snap her neck or start eating her.  She had to do something.  She tore at its hand again and kicked with her left foot as she drew her right leg up, reaching down inside her boot for the bottle she had smuggled there.  She brought it to her face quickly before the wendigo could figure out what it was and yanked the cap off the bottle with her teeth.  Her mouth tingled with the traces of the fluid and she turned it towards the creature, squeezing the plastic bottle and dousing it with the liquid.

The creature reacted instantly, its rotted skull face twisting into the semblance of fear as it screamed again, released her and disappeared as she fell to the ground.

She stood up quickly, the sharp pain of her torn up back fading as the adrenaline pumped through her again.  She pulled out the matches from her pocket only to find a soggy mess.

“Fuck!” she yelled out, throwing the useless things to the ground in anger.  She flew back as the creature ran past her on silent feet and slammed her backwards, her shoulder clawed open and she was wet again as she splashed in the river trying to get a hold of something to help her up before it came at her again.


	30. Chapter 30

Iris lit the way with the flashlight, keeping the beam aimed at the ground so they could see where their feet were landing.  Alex brought up the rear, keeping pace with the other three but looking all around them in the moonlight, her eyes slowly becoming accustomed to the soft blueish haze falling over the creek where the trees grew further away.  Beyond the tree line though, she could see nothing but darkness, and she dreaded what could come out of it.

From behind, she heard the splash of water and a cry of pain and Alex stopped dead in her track again, looking back towards the sound, unable to leave Delilah to whatever fate had in store for her.  Delilah was on her hands and knees in the river, and standing over her, unnaturally still compared to its usual speed and constant motion was the deadly looking wendigo.  It swiped down at Delilah and the hunter cried out again, agony in her voice as she clutched her shoulder, laying back in the creek water.

Alex took a few quick steps back towards them, she had to help her!  That thing was going to kill her.  A hand on her arm held her back, though.  “C’mon Alex!  We gotta go!” said Iris, a tinge of desperation and fear in her voice.  But it could not even compare to the fear now clutching at Alex thinking about losing her family.

Alex hesitated barely a few seconds and then dropped the duffle to the ground and rummaged through it, pushing aside various weapons, and search and rescue tools.  Frustration mounted, there was nothing in there that would help, not even a bit.  Iris shone the flashlight into the open bag and Alex caught sight of a long orange cylinder that felt smooth like cardboard when she touched it.  She pulled out the road flare and stared at it wide-eyed.  What was it Delilah had said?  BBQ… extra crispy…

She stared at the flare, trying to figure out its mysteries while behind her she could hear more splashing.  She turned back to glance at Delilah making it out of the water and back up the other bank of the creek.  She turned back to the flare and practically growled in her frustration.

“How do you light this thing?”

“Give it here!” Iris said holding out her hand.

Alex handed her the flare and Iris handed her the flashlight before she quickly yanked off the end and struck it, somehow making it flare bright red.  Alex had to look away, blinded momentarily, but then she took the flaming stick from Iris and started running back the way they had come.  Delilah was standing with her back to a massive tree trunk and she was yelling obscenities at the creature that was currently out of sight.

“Delilah!”  Alex cried out and the hunter looked up at her.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?  Get out of here!” she yelled back.

“No!” Alex screamed, and she threw the flare with all her might.  It landed on the other side of the creek, miraculously clearing the water, but landing out of the hunter’s immediate reach.  With another screech, sounding much more like a wounded animal this time, the wendigo threw up its long pale arms and shielded its eyes, taking off again with a spray of water.


	31. Chapter 31

Delilah was blinded by the sudden brightness of the flare, lighting up the edge of the creek before it died down to a slow burn.  She looked around for the wendigo, not seeing it, and she hoped that it hadn’t been scared off completely by the light, otherwise how would she find it again?

She looked across the creek again at where Alex was standing.  Too close.  “Alex!  Get out of here!  Right the fuck now!”

“I don’t want to leave you alone!” came the girl’s panicked response.

“I’ll be fine.  You need to get out! NOW!”

Delilah didn’t wait to see if Alex would listen, she pushed off from the tree, taking a step and falling to her knees as pain shot up her leg.  She reached for the road flare, stretching out her good arm.  If she could get it, then all she would have to do is get it to connect with the wendigo’s butane-soaked skin and it would light it up.  She almost had it when she felt the weight of the thing on her, pressing her torn shoulder back into the ground.  She screamed at the sharp pain as she swiped at it with her bare hand, out of options.

She tried to twist under it, her arm reaching again for the flare, but the creature straightened and grabbed her by the leg pulling her away.  She kicked at it, twisting her damaged ankle further and crying out again in pain.

Then, the explosive sound of a blast like thunder sounded all around her and echoed in the quiet valley.  The creature screamed and let her go, disappearing again.  Delilah looked around confused until her eyes landed on the figure standing on the edge of the cliff, the moonlight shining off her shoulders and dark hair while she scanned the area, a shotgun raised to her shoulder.

Delilah took her chance and scrambled for the flare, her waning energy surging again seeing Jody.  Time to finish this!

This time, when the wendigo set upon her, she managed to wrap her fingers tightly around the cardboard tube, her hand singeing where it touched the burning end while the wendigo’s claws dug into her calf painfully.  She sat up, the weapon in her hand and with the last of her energy she thrust the flare into the creature’s chest.

It screamed its animalistic screeching howl, an almost human sounding shout hidden under the noise as it tried to swipe away at the flame that spread quickly from its chest until it covered its whole body.  It flailed for a moment but then in a bright flash of light, it was consumed and gone, not even a bone left as proof of its previous hundred year-existence.

Delilah fell back into the soft, loamy, slightly muddy ground and sighed in relief, her whole body turning to gelatin as the exhaustion overtook her.  She stared at the stars, the millions of tiny white dots across the night sky, scattered like silver glitter and she smiled as the treetops swayed soothingly while darkness crept in at the edges until there was nothing left but darkness, and then just nothing.


	32. Chapter 32

“So…  monsters are real.”

“Pretty much,” Alex answered with a sigh.

She knew it was only a matter of time before Iris started completely freaking out and wouldn’t want to see her ever again.  Sitting on the floor of the ambulance, their legs dangling out the open doors and over the edge of the back bumper, she had told her about being raised by vampires and then being rescued by Jody and Delilah.  When the blonde had asked her why the vampires hadn’t turned her, she told her about her role in helping them find a safe meal.  Alex braced herself against the inevitable horror she would see in Iris’s grey eyes even as she looked everywhere but at her.

She stared out at the scene in front of her, like something straight out of a disaster film.  Flashing lights of all colours were alternating lighting up the base camp parking lot of the park where this thing had taken them.  The trees were going from blue to red and back to blue, and then the quick double bursts of white and red of the fire trucks and ambulances cut in, splashing across the log exterior of the welcome cabin.  The first ambulance had already taken off with the survivors needing immediate attention.  She had heard the paramedics talk about dehydration and broken bones.  Iris had a few scratches that they had cleaned and bandaged up, the blonde’s previously bare legs now looking like they were clad in mummy leggings for Halloween.

“That’s…” Iris started, her voice trailing off before coming back, “That’s kinda… really fucked up, you know that?”

Alex bowed her head feeling the shame fill her and the dread of what would come tomorrow.  She had managed to get out of this horror movie scene with barely a scratch on her.  The paramedics wanted her to get checked out at the hospital; shock or concussion or something.  Apparently, it wasn’t normal behaviour for a sixteen-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and held hostage by a madman still on the loose to be as calm as she was.  Joke’s on them though, she wasn’t calm.  Her insides were twisted in fear that she had been so close to making friends and now she would have to start again, with the possibility that the word would spread about just how much of a freak she really was.

The sudden weight around her neck startled her and she turned her head as an arm wrapped around her back and another around her front linking up and hanging at her shoulder.  She tensed for a moment, was she being attacked?  All she could see was the bleach fried head of hair inches from her face.

“If you could survive all that,” Iris voice said, sounding unusually thin and surprisingly childlike, “Then I have no choice.  I’m gonna have to survive this.”

Alex sat there, Iris’s arms around her, her mind shut down unsure what to do with the situation, unsure she even understood what was going on.  It made no sense.  When was she going to take off?  Tears threatened and turned the flashing lights of the place to blurred, underwater shapes as she stared straight ahead stiffly.

“Please, Alex,” came the strange, little girl voice from the usually loud, bullshit slinging Iris, “Please.  I can’t do this alone.  I don’t want to be alone.”

The tears fell silently from Alex’s eyes and she swallowed around her dry throat and mouth, her heart was pounding slowly in her chest and she didn’t want to be alone either.  Slowly, like her limbs were moving through molasses, Alex shifted her shoulder and raised her arms to wrap around the small blonde girl who against all expectations seemed to want to be around her, wanted ALEX to stay with her, even knowing… everything.  She held the girl around her waist and leaned her head down against the blonde hair in a mirror of Iris’ posture.  She gave her a little squeeze.

“It’s okay,” she found herself saying into the night, unsure if she was talking to Iris, or to herself, “You are not alone.”


	33. Chapter 33

Delilah watched the girls as they sat together in the back of the ambulance talking.  A smile tugged at her lips as she watched them wrap their arms around each other.  It may not be very conventional, but their bond just got a whole lot stronger… like contact glue, she mused to herself.

Delilah was standing, leaning against the fire engine.  She looked like she had gone a full five rounds with a bear; her left arm was in a sling, her right hand wrapped where she had burned herself on the flare.  The claw marks on her shoulder and leg were cleaned and bandaged too, the acetaminophen dulling the pain in her twisted ankle to an annoying throb.  Her head was pounding, but a quick look in the truck’s side mirror was enough to show her that other than a scratch or two, her face was fine.  Her hair…  now that was a different story.

She looked at her bandaged hand and her arm in the sling and wondered briefly how bad it would hurt her shoulder if she just lifted her arms a little to pull some of the mud and twigs out.  Her musings were interrupted when a familiar face came into view around the end of the truck.  Delilah smiled up at her saviour for a moment, but the smiled wavered when she caught Jody’s look.  Her lips were pursed, her jaw was working, and her brown eyes were glaring at her furiously.

“Shit,” Delilah exclaimed, not quite able to keep her good mood out of her tone, “Am I grounded?”

Jody stopped a few feet away and crossed her arms over her chest.  “You stole a cop car, Delilah!” she hissed at her, clearly trying to keep this conversation as private as possible with all the emergency personnel moving about.  “Seriously?  How am I supposed to explain that?”

“It was a matter of life and death, Jody!  ALEX’s life.  When I couldn’t reach you, I did the only other thing I could.”

“How is grand theft auto of a police car even a spec of an idea of a solution in your mind?  Who does that?”  Delilah’s mind jumped straight to her mentors: the Winchesters, and before she could even open her mouth, it was clear in Jody’s closing of her eyes and pinching of the bridge of her nose that she had remembered the hunters and their propensity for stealing in the line of work too. “Never mind,” she groaned as she turned to lean back against the truck’s side for a moment looking completely exasperated.  “That was close, Delilah,” she said, her voice softening, “If I had been just a few minutes later…  I could’ve lost both of you.”

“But you weren’t.  And you didn’t!  Thanks to meddlesome cellphones and GPS gear, I found Alex… and you found the stolen cruiser,” she said happily, then she raised her voice dramatically and waved her hand in the air, “And in came the cavalry, gun blazing, to save the day!”  Delilah shoved against her playfully, unable to shake her good mood, regardless of her injuries.  Jody on the other hand looked more upset than ever, shaking her head and refusing to look at her.  “Hey! Chin up, Sheriff!” Delilah tried again, “At least some good came of this.”

Delilah tilted her head towards the two girls who were now chatting quietly again.  Jody looked towards the ambulance too and her face softened watching the girls as they talked together, both of their body language looking like shy children.

“Yeah,” Jody said, as her furtive smile disappeared again, “What kind of a screwed up family are we, huh?”

“The BEST screwed up family, Jodes.”

“All I want for her, for you, for all of us, is to live quiet, normal lives… why is that so difficult?”

“Well, maybe because… we’re just not normal.  I mean vampire girl over there—”

“Don’t call her that!”

“I’m just surprised she can function on a plane even close to normal, that’s all I’m saying.  She’s crazy resilient.”

“That she is,” Jody replied, sounding proud and awestruck.  They fell quiet for a bit, Delilah just looking around at the emergency vehicles, and the hustle and bustle of action going on around her feeling peaceful.  When Jody spoke again, she was caught off guard.  “You too, you know.”

“Me too, what?” Delilah asked with a confused frown.

“You’re resilient, too.  You’re gonna be okay, Delilah.  You’ll find it.”

“Find what?” she asked, some of her excited good humour fading momentarily as she pondered the meaning of Jody’s words.

“Whatever it is you’re looking for out of life.  You’ll figure it out, and then I know, you’ll go out there and get it.  Kicking ass all the way.”

The last of Delilah’s good humour seemed to evaporate and she sighed at the prospect of returning to normal life.  As much as Jody yearned for them to be normal, happy and safe, Delilah couldn’t help but think that those three things just did not go together in her case.  She thought back to her time with Jody in the past month and half and all her attempts to integrate and feel at home in the normal world: getting a job, talking with co-workers, making date plans, none of those things had brought her even close to the happiness she felt saving Alex from the monster.  Her gaze drifted back to the tree tops swaying in the cool early morning breeze, the sky looking like it was almost ready to start lightening towards blue and the thoughts swirled around in her head looking for coherence – looking for an answer.  What was she looking for out of life?  She had come to realize a few things today hunting down this new monster.  She had already decided to be a better friend to Sam, she didn’t have to keep shoving her memories of her time with him aside just because of his brother.  Sam was part of what made her happy and she didn’t want to keep pushing him away.  She glanced down at her torn body too and felt the wave of accomplishment swell and crest inside of her.  She had hunted down, taken on, and annihilated this monster that had been slowly picking off people in and around Sioux Falls for nearly a century of documentation.  Because of her, people who had been in danger, were now safe.  That also made her happy. Helping people.  And she was a damn good hunter, Dean Winchester or no!  She had walked away from his poison, but that did not mean she had to walk away from Sam nor from hunting.  This is what she wanted.

“Did you really just call me ‘Jodes’?  Seriously?” the sheriff’s voice interrupted her musings and she laughed with her returning good humour.

“Ha! I did, didn’t I?  Why not? It’s totally cute.”

“What? No! Just no!”  Jody straightened up and tossed a set of keys at Delilah.  She caught them, looking up at the sheriff in confusion.  “I think it’s about time those girls were headed to bed, don’t you think?”

“I don’t disagree there, but what about you, sheriff?”

Jody turned, surveying the scene as well and she let out a sigh, “I got a lot of work left to do here.  It’s going to take weeks to sort through all those remains and give those families closure.  And I still don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to write in my report.”

“Psycho killer?  Serial cannibal?”

“Right…  a century old man who’s been eating people since he was a baby.”  Jody’s look of incredulity was too funny, and a smile made its way back onto Delilah’s face as she threw out.

“Yeah…  that’s not believable at all.  Century old, people eating… woman?”

Jody let out a laugh and quickly stopped herself, shaking her head at Delilah.  “Get out of here!”

“You got it!” Delilah said, tossing the sheriff’s keys in the air and catching them again with her hand sticking out of the sling, that was really mostly doing nothing; there was hardly any pain now in her shoulder and so she decided to discard the cumbersome fabric.

She pushed off from the fire engine and strolled towards the two girls, barely a limp in her injured leg.  They looked up at her as she drew near.  Alex had a shy smile she kept trying to hide but couldn’t quite get rid of plastered to her face, and Iris’s colourless eyes were round like saucers, watching Delilah in awe.

“Ready to go home, ladies?”

Alex and Iris glanced at each other.  “Oh, yeah!” they answered, practically in unison and then broke into giggles.


	34. Burnin' for You

_Burn out the day,_

_Burn out the night,_

_I can’t see no reason to put up a fight._

_I’m living for giving the devil his due._

_And I’m burnin’, I’m burnin’, I’m burnin’ for you…_

They dropped off Iris at home, the girl insisting she could tell her parents what happened herself.  Delilah wasn’t convinced she would tell them anything at all though and very nearly got out of the car anyways.  It was Alex’s quiet insistence they respect Iris’s request that held her back.  They watched the blonde turn a key in the front door lock and disappear into the dark house.  The sky above it was noticeably getting lighter and Delilah’s eyes were starting to ache to be closed and her brain and body were begging for a solid day of sleep.  The pain killers were probably starting to wear off, and the adrenaline and endorphins were receding too, leaving her with a body that felt twenty years older than it was.  Alex was quiet the rest of the ride home, just gazing out the window with a relaxed smile on her face.

Delilah turned the corner onto their street.  A few houses away from home, she noticed something glinting in the shadows a little beyond the edge of Jody’s property.  Delilah narrowed her eyes, a strange hyper awareness making her hair stand on end as the headlights of the truck turned into the driveway sweeping past a very familiar taillight and chrome bumper.  Delilah’s mouth went dry as her mind exploded in a fit of confused emotions and thoughts: what was he doing here?  Why was he there at all? Where was her gun, knife, any weapon?  Would he smell as nice as always? Would he yell at her again? Would he apologize?

Pretty quickly her brain started emitting a high-pitched tone that drowned everything else out except the intense urgency to fight or run away.  She was only slightly comforted knowing her knife was, in fact, back in it’s holder and clipped to the back of her belt again.

“Is everything okay?” came Alex’s quiet voice beside her and she realized that the truck was at a full stop, front wheels turned into the driveway, but the back end was still in the street as they idled there.

She forced herself to swallow. “Yeah.  Everything’s great,” she said, pulling the corners of her mouth into a smile.  Alex’s responding frown told her she wasn’t fooling anyone.  She pulled the truck into its spot in the driveway and switched off the engine.  “Alex, listen,” she said in a tone that left no room for discussion.  “I want you to get inside and lock the door, got it?”

“What’s going on?”

“Just, please do what I ask.”

She could see that Alex was starting to look upset, but she didn’t have time to spare for her feelings.  She needed to find out what it was that he wanted, and she didn’t want Alex subjected to his abuse.  Delilah could take it, she had survived Dean Winchester before, she could do it again, especially now knowing what he was capable of.  She pushed open the driver’s door with a loud creak and Alex did the same on her side, her head turning and scanning, looking for what had set off Delilah’s spidey-sense.  Delilah knew the instant Alex spotted the car in the growing dawn light, as her eyes went round in shock.  She shut the truck’s door, Alex startling and looking right at her; Alex might not be aware of everything that had happened between her and Dean, but her own experience wasn’t all warm and fuzzy, either.  Delilah jerked her head towards the front door and the teen set off at a quick pace.  Delilah didn’t take her eyes off her until she disappeared inside the house.  When she was sure Alex would be safe, she took a deep breath and turned towards the Impala.

He had parked it in front of the empty lot beside Jody’s house where the old maple grew, its branches laden with freshly sprouted leaves.  She approached it cautiously, trying to see inside the dark interior, leaning down as she drew close to the trunk and lay her hand on the cool metal.  A little light shone in through the windows as she bent down beside the back-passenger door and she saw that there was no one in the car.  Her eyes landed on unfamiliar shapes on the seat and on the dashboard and she frowned at the trash, wrappers and half eaten food littering the interior; suddenly she wasn’t too sure the Impala had been driven there by Dean at all.

She straightened up, smoothing her hand along the car’s familiar lines as she took a step closer to the front end.

“Mmmm,” came a soft, low, gruff rumble from behind her, both familiar and chill inducing at once, “Love it when you stroke my Baby like that.”

Her heart pounding in her chest, her legs itching to take off running, her brain screaming at everybody to calm down, Delilah slowly turned around.  She spotted him leaning his shoulder against the tree as he watched her, his body concealed from her up until that point by the wide trunk.

“Dean,” she managed to push out through her tight throat.

“Lilah,” he said using his pet name for her, saying it slowly, like he was relishing the feel of it on his tongue.

“What are you doing here?”

She watched him push off from the tree, his hands in his jean pockets as he took slow, easy steps towards her.  He pulled something out of his pocket and Delilah felt her body twitch, though she forced herself to stay put.  He waggled his phone at her, “You called me… remember?”

There was something off about him.  Delilah couldn’t quite put her finger on it, something about the set of his shoulders and the tilt of his head that was just so unfamiliar, just too casual for Dean Winchester.  And yet, his body was tense, coiled, like he could pounce at any minute, should the mood strike him.  Delilah decided that whatever his reason for dropping by, she wanted him the fuck gone…  right now.

“I needed information for a hunt.  But it’s done now, so thanks for driving here from God knows where but you can go.”

Dean came to a stop in front of her and tilted his head to the side as he tucked his phone back into his pocket.  He was looking over her body, his eyes taking in her wrapped injuries and torn clothes, maybe… except… except for that hungry look in his eyes.  He looked back up at her, his stare capturing hers and locking it in place and one word flashed in her mind: dangerous.  When he took another step towards her, she couldn’t stop herself from stepping back, trying to keep a safe distance between them.  Her back was stopped by the cold glass window and metal frame of the car behind her, Baby effectively trapping her in the sights of the predator.  Adrenaline coursed through her as her flight response was interrupted, leaving room only for fight.

“What do you want, Dean?” she asked him forcefully.

His hand came up suddenly and she flinched before he gently laid it on the side of her head, caressing her tenderly.  She felt the rough calloused skin smoothing down the side of her face and neck while Dean’s eyes rove over her face, the twisted smile pulling at his lips at odds with the gentle caress, as they strayed lower still to her chest.  “You,” he said, his tone soft and familiar, “I want you, Lilah.”  His eyes came back up to hers and the hunger there was more obvious than ever and leaving no doubt about his intentions.  Delilah wasn’t sure that if she refused him, he would he let her go.  The look in his eyes was too reminiscent of another night, in another place.  Would he force himself on her… again?  The last words he spoke to her came rushing to the forefront of her mind suddenly, _I don’t give a shit about you. You’re nothing but an easy fuck_.

“I missed you, babe,” he said in his strangely unaffected voice, his eyes surveying her like property.

Anger swelled inside her, building up like a water kettle left on the stove, the high pitched keening noise back in her ears as she let the emotion fill her, fuel her, and dictate her words and actions.  _Who the HELL does he think he is?_   Dean’s hand was on her neck still, his thumb gliding along her cheek and he moved in closer, he leaned towards her, his eyes nearly closed as they stared down at her lips.  The anger overrode her fear and her hand shot out and up, slapping him hard across the face, turning his head away from the impact.  Her burned skin stung through the bandage, but she barely felt it as his eyes locked with hers again, his intense rage twisting his features, all traces of the smug smirk gone.  His eyes were smouldering as his whole body tensed and she pressed back against the car again, her fear returning full force as his fist closed on her hair, yanking her head to the side and holding her in place as his mouth slammed down on hers.

She struggled against him, bringing up her hands to push against his chest, but all her strength, leveraged by the solid car behind her could not make him budge.  She was trapped as his mouth took what it wanted and his hands gripped her, stopping her escape.  His lips pressed into hers and she did the only thing she could think of.  She opened her mouth, letting his plump lower lip slip past as he kissed her and then she brought her teeth down hard on the soft flesh, feeling her teeth break the skin before he pulled away.

Delilah tasted blood in her mouth as she straightened up from the car and reached behind her for the blade she was ready to use on him if he tried anything again.  The smile on his face caught her off guard as he let out a short, huffing laugh.  “Cute.  The tickled a little,” he said.  And her confusion increased tenfold as she stared at his lip, no trace of where she had just bitten him except for the lingering metallic taste in her mouth.  _What?_

Dean reached for her again with his hand, and her reflexes brought up the hand holding the knife and she swiped at him.  She had only meant to scare him off, expecting Dean to draw back from the attack, but instead she felt the impact on the blade as it sliced into his wrist and part of his palm.  He did draw back, this time no trace of humour in his face as he looked at his hand with a mild curiosity.  Something was most definitely wrong.  He wasn’t exhibiting any pain whatsoever, not even the shock of being cut deeply and she saw the blood drip from his open wrist.  She was torn between wanting to stop the bleeding and being angry with him for making her cut him in the first place.

“What is wrong with you?” she whispered in confusion.  But then her confusion turned to amazement as he grinned again, that twisted, cold, mirthless grin, and he turned his cut towards her.  She watched, wide-eyed as the blood stopped flowing on its own.  And then the gaping skin drew itself back together until there was first just a fine red line and finally, there was no trace left of the cut.  She turned to look at him, wanting answers, and her amazement turned to horror as her gaze was met by smooth black opal eyes.

“You think a little pig-sticker like that can hurt me?”

“No!” she said in shock, and then her anger swelled, and she shook from it, “You get the fuck out of him, you fucker!” she screamed as she charged the demon possessing Dean.  She was in a blind rage, all sense falling away from her as she jumped at a demon without a blade or holy water to save her.

The creature side-stepped her charge easily and she felt the blow to her head before she found herself face down on the cold grass.  She tried to jump to her feet, but his foot came swinging and hit her in the abdomen.  She rolled onto her back from the impact, clutching her side where it was throbbing. The demon strolled up to her nonchalantly, but before she could move away he straddled her prone body, crouching over her as she struggled to dislodge his weight. His black eyes fixed on her, like something out of one of her long ago nightmares, and his intent was unreadable.  Something glinted in the growing dawn light and her eyes were drawn to it, a fresh wave of fear washing through her as she stared at her blade in his hand.  Too late, she realized that he had somehow disarmed her.  She looked back up at him, staring into his achingly familiar face and disturbingly strange eyes, and she thought, for the second time that night, that this was how she would die.

The demon’s free hand came up and she flinched again, startled, as he caressed her cheek gently with the back of his fingers.  As she watched, the black opals turned back to Dean’s green irises, the previously unreadable expression on his face turning to one of cold curiosity, and Delilah frowned at the underlying note of sadness… maybe regret?  What the hell?  What demon shows remorse?

Then just as suddenly, he stood up, dropped her blade to the ground beside her and walked away with long strides back to the parked Impala.  Delilah sat up in the grass and she watched him climb into the car without a backwards glance and drive off.

She fell back onto the cool grass, her body wracked by shivers and tremors as her second near-death experience of the day wreaked havoc on her body and mind.  She wanted to scream and cry and curl into a ball and never get up again.  Dean was possessed by a demon!  What the fuck?  How long?  How did it happen? He was warded against possession!  Who got to him?  Well that answer seemed pretty obvious, even in her state.  Delilah was going to kill Crowley with her bare hands for this.

Questions upon questions jumbled together incoherently, her panic swelling to a crescendo until suddenly her mind cleared and her eyes widened as the one, most important thing was left…

“Sam!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it. I hope it didn't disappoint.
> 
> For those of you trying to situate it in the SPN timeline, this is basically happening around Season 10, episode 1 "Black". I'm pushing on with what I started with season 9, so I'll follow the basic season 10 timeline... although I'm going to be changing things more than I did with season 9... let's just say Delilah won't be the only thing affecting events in the stories to come... The course of SPN history will be changed!
> 
> 'til next time!
> 
> Love you all!
> 
> SoulSurvivor_36


End file.
